Anyone who pays attention to US politics knows that the level of political discourse over, well, everything seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. I like to think that we tend to have an above average level of civility and intellect around here, and would like to try to have a conversation about health care reform.

Here are my ground rules:

1. Set aside what the professionals are doing - I don't want to hear about what you think of Obama, Pelosi, Ron Paul, Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck. I don't wanna hear about what's "really in the bill" and what's not. This is about what we would pass if we were the US Congress.
   
2. Be respectful of other people - Do not call people names. Don't use labels like teabaggers, statists, socialist, neolib, neocon, heartless, asshole, asshat, and moron. Don't compare anyone or their ideas to Hitler, the Nazis, Mengela, Karl Marx, Stalin or Communists.
   
3. Don't question other people's motives - Assume that people are acting in a way they think will be generally beneficial to everyone, unless they explicitly state otherwise.
   
4. If you believe what you're saying is factual, provide an authoritative source - Do not confuse opinion and fact. "Government can't do anything right" is an opinion, not a fact. I would discourage too much challenging of sources, but let's say right now that studies performed by partisan organizations (e.g. Cato, Heritage, Lewin Group, Center for American Progress) reach analytical conclusions that are opinion, though the underlying data and cited sources are likely authoritative.
   
5. The point of the conversation is to discuss how to solve the problems - I don't want to hear that doing X requires taxes and/or laws, therefore it's coercion, therefore I win and you lose. If you believe that, provide a solution that doesn't require them, contest the problem itself, or just keep your mouth shut.
   

Now, to give us a starting point, I declare that we can all agree that the main issues with our health care system are:

1. People with preexisting conditions cannot get insurance at all
   
2. Insurance can drop your coverage when you get sick
   
3. Being uninsured or under insured puts you at a high risk of going bankrupt
   
4. Insurance itself is too expensive, and places an extreme burden both on businesses and individuals
   
5. We spend a larger share of our GDP on health care than any other nation
   
6. Our overall health care outcomes are worse than most industrialized nations (e.g. Life expectancy, infant mortality, etc.)
   

I'm open to the above being topics of debate as well, but I'm trying to find some sort of universal consensus on something, and I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb with that list.

That said, let us begin.