I got hit with an additional wave of e-mails and phone calls when Iran my Jan. 22 blog entry–”What If Hillary Was Right AboutHealthcare Reform?”–as my editorial column in our Feb. 5 magazine.The spirited responses I received from readers (some irate, othersmerely furious, although a few actually agreed with me) are postedwith this entry. But I also want to call your attention to one veryinteresting phone call from an agent in Michigan who wondered howmuch better off the auto and workers' comp insurance industriesmight be if a single-payer health plan took over the troubledmedical components of both casualty lines. An intriguingpossibility, don't you think?

If you didn't catch my first take on this, I argued that many ofthe worst aspects critics associated with Hillary Clinton'shealthcare reform plan when she was First Lady have come to passanyway–having a faceless bureaucrat dictate which doctors,hospitals, rehabilitation centers and drugs you can and cannottake, while insurers play a shell game by shifting more and moreexpenses onto patients.

The first two reader responses are well thought out plans to fixour broken system. Terrific! This is the type of debate I expect onthe national level, particularly during the presidential race.