Can somebody please crack a window?

Time to realign our wheels.  Let's start with a few principles that I think nearly everyone can agree to:

• Some basic level of healthcare should be available to everybody
• Good health should be as affordable as possible
• People need to see the costs of healthcare firsthand, so they can make valid choices.
• The course of care should be determined by doctors and their patients, not insurance companies, lawyers, or governments.
• Nobody should have to pay for someone else's avoidable healthcare costs (smoking, overeating, failure to take medication, etc.)

This all sounds very simple and reasonable.  However, we keep bumping up against some "inconvenient truths" (sorry, Al).

1. Healthcare is not a right, any more than good health is a right.  Using this kind of language just inflames opinions.  It stinks that people get sick, die, and/or have no healthcare.  But that doesn't elevate it to a human right.
2. It's insurance, people.  It's a bet.  Nobody who wants to stay in business will stake a game with crappy house odds.  Which is why pre-existing conditions are rarely covered.  This isn't to say they shouldn't be, only that we have to recognize the high cost and the limitations of insurance markets to do so.
3. "Seeking profits" is not a dirty phrase.  I'm not sure how, even in the light of Wall Street's recent fall from grace, it has become one.  Profit making isn't evil, and those who do it well should be rewarded for it.
4. Comparisons with other countries and other health systems are mildly flawed at best, and invalid at worst. They deal too much in averages over large populations.  There are also many cultural, demographic, diet, and lifestyle differences that skew comparisons.  Any system we import will make some people worse off.  Is it any surprise then, that there's opposition to the specific reforms being discussed in Washington?
5. Insuring more people will cost more money.