Debate: Obama as president in '12?
Side: No, I don't like his policies.

I'm going to address these concerns starting with your last point:5. When speaking of fear rhetoric, I'm not talking about your argument specifically, but all of the death panel BS and socialist take-over nonsense the tea-baggers spew, whom consequently make up the majority of the opposition and all of the death threats, bricks through windows, etc.The 1.05 trillion dollar price tag is nominal, but not that nominal. They are pretty sure it will be between 1 trillion and 1.5 trillion... over ten years. That is less money than one year of the Iraq war and instead of killing people we are saving them.4. That simply is not true. Rationing should only exist when resources are limited, however the difference is, the insurance industry has had plenty of resources. In fact even in this economy they have continued turning out record profits while at the same time covering less people. Since we didn't go with the single payer system for some mysterious reason, the next best thing is to legally demand the private companies we will still be getting our insurance from are legally obligated to insure.I don't doubt they will still find ways to let people die for a profit, but at least it will be harder for them to do.3. Sounds like propaganda, no offense. They say they will have to raise rates, but I don't believe them. They may want to raise rates, but they won't be allowed to because now they must spend 85% of the money they receive directly on healthcare or they will lose their license to provide insurance. My guess is they will actually be forced to lower rates since only something like 10% goes toward actual healthcare now.2. It is hard to argue, and some I'm sure really do have good insurance. But again, the majority of these bankruptcies are people who thought they had good insurance. The trend seems show the comment to be correct.1. You cover a lot ground with this comment. First I believe you have an unfair negative view of mandates. For example government mandates hospitals maintain a minimum standard of cleanliness, as a result things like the black plague are far less common. Could there have been a time when one argued such a "government mandate" would never work. I almost guarantee someone somewhere made that argument. There may be bad mandates, I believe though that in light of no public option (which I'd prefer actually) mandating a certain level of business "cleanliness" as it were is the next best option.As for subsidies. Of course if everyone is covered that would be inescapable, at least until everyone is in the system then maybe even the poorest will be able to afford healthcare because of a larger pool, but that aside, in the meantime it is essential. I would say though, that subsidizing say a breast exam which finds a stage 1 tumor, is ultimately less expensive than not finding the problem until the woman goes to the emergency room during stage 3. We're talking a $2,000 dollar procedure to remove a tumor against hundreds of thousands of dollars of treatment we would be subsidizing anyway when she goes to the emergency room. And then there is the whole thing about the woman's life and all.And your last sentence, I actually have nothing to lose. I'm an independant contractor so pay a disproportionately high tax rate compared to income already and still don't have health insurance. But if I did receive a paycheck, I would be extatic that more of the money that is taken out will go toward healthcare instead of the Insurance money machine. I'm pretty sure everyone will be paying less in the long term. The fact is, most people don't get that sick, so if you have a bunch of people paying into a system, it is pretty simple to cover the people who do get sick, or oneself if they are the unlucky one.That is how insurance is supposed to work anyway. All this does is take some steps to make sure the insurance companies can't cheat anymore. I almost guarantee, in light of the 85% law, and in light of the fact that the millions of people like myself who are relatively healthy but still simply could not afford it are now going to be paying into the system, everyone's insurance is going to go down not up.