Health Care Reform

I am all for making the health care system more efficient. However, there is so much spin in the discussion that it is hard to understand what is being discussed. Now that makes me nervous. Using euphemisms usually means trying to make something unpleasant sound pleasant.

This, for instance, in USA Today, reporting on President Obama making health care reform one of his first early priorities:

"However, the survey also revealed wide divisions in public opinion, with roughly half (49 percent) saying they are not willing to pay more to expand access to health insurance and 47% saying they are."

What does "expand access to health insurance" mean? It sounds like a good idea. Shouldn't people without access to health insurance have access to it?

What I suspect that means is subsidizing health insurance, so that people with money pay for health insurance for people without money. Now that may be a good idea, but why can't we discuss providing health insurance for poor people, or something like that?

My guess is that more people would be in favor of "expanding access" than for paying for health insurance for others, and that the media want to promote the policy, so they come up with more appealing ways to describe it...