Reality-Based Reality

The Rabid Right has successfully created political controversy over issues that have a reality-based consensus, even among GOP supporters. Global heating is becoming such an issue (with a significant number of corporations in the energy business very aware of the science and its implications), but probably the example of the greatest consensus that's the biggest secret is health care. For example, today's New York Times story which begins:

"IN Washington, the phrase "universal coverage" is rarely mentioned as the way to provide health insurance for the 45 million uninsured Americans. It evokes memories of the Clinton administration's sobering failure to forge a national health care plan. Yet among health care experts there is a surprising consensus that the United States must inevitably adopt some kind of universal coverage."

And ends...
"IT will take political will and some hard choices about what path to take, but the United States certainly has the means to provide health insurance to everyone, health experts say. Neelam Sekhri, a health policy and finance expert at the World Health Organization, illustrates it this way: American government spending on Medicare and Medicaid alone, which covers about 40 percent of the population, if spread across the nation's entire population, would equal on a per capita basis total spending by most European countries.
From a strictly financial standpoint, Ms. Sekhri said, "Given the amount of money that the United States spends on health, there is no reason why it should not be able to provide a very good system of universal health coverage.""

Part of the problem, besides widespread denial among GOPer voters who don't believe that Bushies positions could possibly be as extreme as they in fact are, involves companies and universities dealing in big bucks who don't want to make political waves.
The New York Times > Business > Business Special > The Disparate Consensus on Health Care for All