Not seeing it...

The debate was last night...

One part I was very focused on was the health-care portion...

I am a diabetic...

My husband is self-employed...

We are "covered" (if you can call it that!) by insurance...

We pay $1600 A MONTH six months out of the year for my medical needs/supplies (I have a prescription ceiling in my coverage, which I'm lucky to have at all, because most private, or small company health plans make it very hard, or next to impossible to cover people with pre-existing conditions--We can't qualify for "HIP", because our income is too high, and you must be denied coverage to qualify, which I can't allow to happen because if I did allow for a gap in my medical coverage, I would NEVER be able to get health-care coverage in the future, because there can be no gaps in coverage when changing from one plan to another...) This yearly amount, NOT INCLUDING the new pump I paid a $3700 co-pay on, is $9600...This is like paying TWO mortgages each month!!!!

Now...McCain suggests a $5000 incentive to "help" cover insurance costs...That is laughable to me, and to every other American out there who are paying ridiculous amounts not only for their premiums, but out-of-pocket expenses not "covered" by one's "coverage."

Insurance companies are getting RICH...They are collecting on the fact that people like me need coverage to survive...Don't even get me started on the manufacturers of diabetic supplies and medicine, and how much money they pocket from the diseases that WE live with...I did NOT ask to be a diabetic...I did not do something in my lifestyle, other than have a genetic factor, which manifested itself when I was 20...My mother did NOT ask for Breast Cancer...so why does she have to spend $350 (which is her CO-PAY price!) for THREE pills EVERY WEEK to help her with the pain and sickness of CHEMO to fight the ravishes of cancer?!! How is this "helping" the American people?

This is a quote from last night's debate:

Schieffer: All right, let's go to a new topic, health care. Given the current economic situation, would either of you now favor controlling health care costs over expanding health care coverage? The question is first to Sen. Obama.

Obama: We've got to do both, and that's exactly what my plan does.

Look, as I travel around the country, this is the issue that will break your heart over and over again. Just yesterday, I was in Toledo shaking some hands in a line. Two women, both of them probably in their mid- to late-50s, had just been laid off of their plant. Neither of them have health insurance.

And they were desperate for some way of getting coverage, because, understandably, they're worried that, if they get sick, they could go bankrupt.

So here's what my plan does. If you have health insurance, then you don't have to do anything. If you've got health insurance through your employer, you can keep your health insurance, keep your choice of doctor, keep your plan.

The only thing we're going to try to do is lower costs so that those cost savings are passed onto you. And we estimate we can cut the average family's premium by about $2,500 per year.

If you don't have health insurance, then what we're going to do is to provide you the option of buying into the same kind of federal pool that both Sen. McCain and I enjoy as federal employees, which will give you high-quality care, choice of doctors, at lower costs, because so many people are part of this insured group.

We're going to make sure that insurance companies can't discriminate on the basis of pre-existing conditions. We'll negotiate with the drug companies for the cheapest available price on drugs.

We are going to invest in information technology to eliminate bureaucracy and make the system more efficient.

And we are going to make sure that we manage chronic illnesses, like diabetes and heart disease, that cost a huge amount, but could be prevented. We've got to put more money into preventive care.

This will cost some money on the front end, but over the long term this is the only way that not only are we going to make families healthy, but it's also how we're going to save the federal budget, because we can't afford these escalating costs.

Schieffer: All right.

I see OPTIONS...I don't see Socialism...No one is making anyone do anything they don't want...

I'm not seeing it...What's the problem?