Who is to blame?

Discussing the US health care system with my Republican friends is like (quoting Barney Frank) arguing with a dining room table. Oblivious to the fact that the United States comes in # 37 according to the World Health Organization, one of those friends praised the capitalistic system when it comes to our health care. Considering she gets her "news" from Rush Limbaugh and FOX we have to excuse her ignorance - or do we?

Her enthusiastic endorsement of capitalism made my stomach turn knowing that people have died while being objected to the greed of insurance companies.

Michael Moore had been vilified by many Republicans but most publicly by John McCain. That might be the reason why people on the right did not watch his movie SICKO, where they would have found out about the fight and suffering of people who actually had insurance and became sick.

Are these people dismissing the plight of sick people because they don't care or because they don't believe their stories? Is it a lack of compassion or imagination? My guess is, it is both. But it comes with the territory of being human that tragedy could easily and anytime happen to them personally or to somebody they love.

So who is to blame for the state of our health care? The Republicans in power who obviously have a financial stake in the current system? Or their constituents who still believe that they have been served well by the right even after years of proven incompetence (think: Katrina), lies (think: the Iraq war) and wasting our taxes (check: deficit) and still support and vote for them?