Will Work For Health Insurance, Um, I Mean, Health Care

Please read Marcy Wheeler's article at Firedoglake about the deficiencies of some self-proclaimed healthcare reform advocates' notions of "affordability." Face it: a plan that leaves out any substantial fraction of Americans, no matter how it makes the cut, causes the whole reform effort to be more expensive for everyone, including those who are in fact covered. Most of the economies of scale can be obtained only by universal coverage, but some supporters of "a plan by SOTU-time at any cost" seem to have omitted a few basic facts from their analyses. Wheeler's article relates to an article on "affordability" (a word one can apparently define to one's taste and economic class) as analyzed by authors from Gruber (MIT) and Seif (Harvard). See, in particular, what Wheeler notes that those authors omit: simple facts such as the very similar Massachusetts state plan, under which something like 21 percent of participants find themselves forced to forgo necessary medical care for financial reasons. Does this sound like reform to you?