I’m moving today and tommorrow so dont expect much real thoughtful action here until next week. However, I’ll list a few bits and pieces you should keep up with.

As you’ll recall in my comparisons of Canadian and US healthcare systems (in my Oh Canada piece and elsewhere) the major issue for lower income Americans is their problems paying the bills associated with medical care. This is virtually unknown elsewhere in the civilized industrialized world. HSC has a new report out showing that 20 million families, which is about 20% of households, in the US have serious problems with medical bills, including having to choose between paying them and paying rent.

With a little more of this rhetoric, health care just might become a slightly more important issue for this election cycle. It’s more likely though that this will continue to build up until the dam bursts in the latter part of this decade, and we engage in a full-scale national debate a la 1992-4.