Americans (and Wisconsinites) want Universal Healthcare

Quotes from the GMToday Editorial by Tim Schilke:

Yet Moore’s right-wing critics are already in full counterstrike attack mode, claiming that even Democratic politicians fear the documentary, since they have no intention of taking on a "politically unpopular issue" like universal health coverage for all Americans. While it is interesting to claim that most Americans don’t want universal health coverage, it’s also a politically motivated fabrication.

A New York Times/CBS News poll from March of this year showed that 76 percent of Americans would choose universal health care over extending the tax cuts from earlier in the decade. Only 18 percent said they would prefer to extend the tax cuts over universal health care. Similarly, a 2003 poll from ABCNews and the Washington Post showed that 62 percent of Americans preferred a universal health care system to the current employer-based system.

Unlike most right-wing pundits who apparently never get sick, most Americans are facing the harsh reality of mounting medical bills and rising out-of-pocket premiums, some of which they cannot pay. Working Americans with a budget see their out-of-pocket health care costs rise with each passing year. Large corporations and small businesses alike are similarly burdened by their increasing share of the employee costs. In the meantime, health care consumers, otherwise known as sick people, watch as pharmaceutical and insurance companies report record profits at their expense.