I would like universal coverage a whole lot better if it were done through creating consumer-owned health care cooperatives — a la rural electric and farmers’ cooperatives. These cooperatives could then make provisions for things their members want, such as alternative care, without having to run through the Washington maze to get approval.

It is not everything we want in the form of a single payer system, but it is a step in the right direction. I say let’s wait to see the final bill that emerges from the House-Senate conference committee before writing this one off. Even the conservative AP stories on this call it “near-universal coverage for all Americans,” so the final compromise must be better than what we have been hearing on TV for weeks.

Like anyone not currently covered by health insurance, I like the idea of universal coverage for that reason. But minus other measures to trim pork spending (which will never happen as long as there is a professional, serve-for-decades Congress)and very strong economic growth, the revenue simply will not be there to finance universal coverage for the long haul and maybe even short term.

The other aspect of this, something no one in Washington has talked about it, is that this legislation merely changes the method of paying the current corporate medical provider system. It does nothing, for instance, to encourage use of holistic health care such as acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, etc. There is no “change in culture” encouraged by this legislation whatever.

I stop short of calling this “health care reform” because all that has been “reformed” is who pays the bills.