Health Care Clarity from Krugman

Paul Krugman has a nice piece in today's NY Times that upends the hysteria over government's role in a reformed health care system.

It’s not just that many Americans don’t understand what President Obama is proposing; many people don’t understand the way American health care works right now. They don’t understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldn’t be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance.

And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at all.

Imagine if every US citizen had the equivalent of Medicare. Why is that such a radical notion? And Obama's not even going that far. This debate is being fought, as it so often is these days, in a thick haze of misinformation. We need to clear the air and get this done.