Don't Call It 'Single-Payer'

Dear Mr. President,
     There is only way to adequately reform the health-care "system" in the U.S.  You know what it is.  Unlike all those involuted "reform" proposals currently bruited about, this one is elegantly simple.
     Desired endgame: Full coverage for all even though some people might keep the insurance policies they have.  The individual citizens make all decisions about their own health care.  The government simply does the paying.
     Paid for how?  By modest payroll taxes, employers included (like social security).  Dedicate income from a carbon tax and excises on, say, imported steel.  Use some ingenuity, be creative.  But please spare us chimerical crud about "savings" paying for some of it.  Of course the government would still have to allocate annual appropriations to cover shortfalls.
     Back in 2003 the new U.S. Senator from Illinois declared: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health-care program."  In 2006 you waffled on this but still averred that you "would not shy away from a debate about single-payer."  So . . . wha' hoppened?
     Can't you and the Vice-President expound it lucidly to the American people; maybe tag it with another name?  (Or don't even label it.)  Then do the right thing: take that ball and run it all the way home.  Ignore the squeals and penalty flags.  You can do that.
     Reform the U.S. Health-care "system" with everyone getting coverage?  Deflate health-care costs?  Save outfits like GM and Chrysler and "Joe the Plumber's"?  (It's one sure way to stimulate business, big and small.)  There is no other way to do it right.  Repeat: There is no other way to do it right. 
     Peter Peterson, a wise and very rich man, suggests engendering a governmental commission  to budget health-care expenditures and make transparent decisions regarding types and extents of coverage (plus other kinds of policies the Payer would follow.)  Does that mean paid-for health care is not infinite--that it's finite, for goodness' sake?  Duh, everything on Earth is finite!  The commission would be responsible for reflecting reality.  I would suggest the commission elicit watchdog groups to help keep it real.
     Besides consulting Mr. Peterson (you can Google his book), please consult Physicians for a National Health Program (www.phhp.org)(312-782-8006).  Who else would you want to listen to?
     How 'bout the American people?  Our having the single-payer program (or whatever you might choose to rename it) is simply inevitable.  Twenty or thirty years down the pike, when it's a fixture, young uns will ask: "Back in 2009, what were those yahoos debating?"  It's sort of like legalizing gay marriage, but we need this immediately.
     Will a single-payer system be perfect?  It might be analogous to Churchill's axiom that democracy is the second-worst form of government known to man.  (The worst are all the rest.)  But that's to view this program starkly.  It's sure to be way better than what we have--and what we have seen proposed.
     Now is an excellent time to grow bigger balls.*  Insist on Senator Max Baucus following the correct marching order.  You might hear some bellowing and moaning.
                                                (*Unless, of course, you're Sen. John Ensign)
Yours truly,
Dennis F.T. Macek [may-chek ], Odessa, Texas