Maybe this explains the right-wing attack on ABC News

The Country as a whole definitely wants health care reform. However, when you get down to specifics as to what changes they want it's not that clear.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jun/16/americans-united-change/62-percent-support-health-not-barack-obamas/

"It's true that polls show solid majorities of the American public think the health care system needs change.

But there's a big difference between general support for health care legislation and the particulars of Obama's plan. The ad from Americans United for Change cites a Diageo Hotline Poll of June 10, 2009, saying that it showed 62 percent support for "the President's plan to reform health care." The actual question was this: "Do you support or oppose Congress and the President enacting a major overhaul of the U.S. health care system?" That question gauges whether people broadly support the president and Congress working together to change health care...

The ad from Americans United for Change implies that 62 percent support a public health insurance plan. But the Diageo Hotline poll did not ask specifically about the public option.

A poll that did, the Rasmussen Reports poll of June 15, 2009, asked the question plainly -- "Would it be a good idea to set up a government health insurance company to compete with private health insurance companies?" -- and found support split, with 41 percent answering yes, 41 percent answering no, and 18 percent saying they weren't sure. That's nowhere near 62 percent support... "

When 38 percent of Americans were asked about "reforming the Health Care System", 66 percent of them then asked a question themselves in response : "what do you mean by 'system'" they asked... and then when confronted by the question of what does 'system' specifically refer to, only 24 percent of those who started the whole thing in the first place anyway, answered back "Health Insurance"... to which those who were being asked then said:

"Oh, Health Insurance... OK, this is what I think of Health Insurance" they said.

Health Insurance, when when offered by a private Health Insurance company, is simply someone in business, in the business of being a "middle man", in the business of buying low and selling high (like a lot of business people do), and what these "middle men" have done is they've inserted themselves into the transaction between a person needing (and therefore purchasing) Health care, and the ones providing (or selling) that Health care to them...

And once they've inserted themselves into the transaction, between the Health Care provider and the one who needs the Health Care, these "middle men" private for profit Health Insurance companies, they naturally take out a slice of the transaction for themselves, to cover all of their administrative costs and salaries and the buildings they operate out of and the jets and airfare and company cars and the perks and the benefits and of course on top of it all, a HEALTHY PROFIT of course...

And this jacks up the the cost of Health Insurance premiums like you read about!

And those premiums are so costly, and take such a big chunk out of people's paychecks, that two bad things happen as a result...

One, people's take home pay is so reduced by the bite of Health Insurance premiums, that they can't save any money, not for their kid's college or for a mortgage payment or down payment, not for a rainy day even...

And two, because of all of this, millions of people say screw it, I'll go without Health Insurance, because it costs too much!

Now, if we could just find a way of getting this "middle man", this for profit company that has somehow inserted themselves into this equation, who they don't provide Health care anyway, but there they are, right in the middle, taking as big a bite and as big a slice out of the transaction as they can, and for what? What do they do for anybody and for the equation? What do they do, except keep the costs higher and higher to the consumer, for having to pay not only the true costs of Health Care, but for the "middle man's" costs of doing business and salaries and administrative costs and office buildings and planes trains and automobiles, and of course their HEALTHY PROFIT too...

If we could just find a way of slicing them out of the transaction, then maybe we could make Health Insurance affordable, enough to not only free up a substantial chunk of our paychecks, but to make it so even those who said screw it I can't afford it, might now say sure sign me up I like the price...

Someone needs to come up with an idea about this...

Let's ask 36 percent of the people, how we can get 67 percent of them on board, so that 86 percent more will have Health Insurance.

The conservatives fear the majority not only favors health care reform but that many of the people who are uninsured will vote for the Dems after the new law. There are about 40 million people that are uninsured so you can take an educated guess on how many millions of potential votes for elections. It could push Republicans into permanent minority status for decades to come.

Maybe the Noise Machine wants to shut down any debate because it realizes it's on the losing side.

No way! That would be tantamount to trying to silence dissenting opinions, which is a really big issue for them right now.

Any question about reforming health care needs to exclude anyone over 65. To have someone on Medicare being asked to change healthcare would infer that there would be a change to those people who are completely covered.
Any discussion needs to incorporate the facts. First, those countries with universal health care pay less than half per capita what we do. Second, in overall health outcomes, including life expectancy, those countries do better than the US. Third, over 40% of health dollars spent in the US are already spoent on universal healthcare: Medicare.
Once the stage is set, now let's have a poll of whether people under 65 want changes in health care in the US.

Now, of course, a large part of disseminating information like the above would be the press corps. Oh, wait, never mind, most people will never hear things like that because the press corps and the cable mouths all have health care, and good coverage too.

Too bad about all those poor people; well, wage slaves are born to wage slaves and to die sooner than they should. Life's tough.

So tell me, if it's not "socialized medicine", 1) what is it? and 2) how will I know "socialized medicine" when I see it?

Um...the attack is because while covering the issue they are not allowing a debate. They are going to have what amounts to an infomercial for the President's plan. That isn't news, and I am shocked that MM would even have something defending it on their site.