The movie Groundhog Day was a gentle comedy in which the hero finally makes the right choices and gets the girl in a crowd-pleasing happy ending. But in 2008, Groundhog Day has become a national nightmare in which we, the heroes, may have only one chance to get it right. Each day we wake up hoping to find a leader who has the intelligence to understand how best to navigate our current crises and the discipline to hold a steady course through our economic perfect storm that is wracking Wisconsin and the rest of the nation. But again and again, rational deliberations are drowned out by voices that tell us to fear those who are not like us, because Joe Sixpack and all those hockey moms have what it takes to preserve the freedom and greatness that we inherited from our founding fathers: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, just your ordinary kind of guys. On November fourth, the alarm clock will awaken us for what may be our last best shot at preserving Wisconsin's economy and making the twenty-first century an American century. After eight years of shooting ourselves in the foot, how can we avoid shooting ourselves in the head?

Now that McCain and Palin have draped themselves in Obama’s mantle of change, the crucial question has become: change to what? Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin all claim to feel the pain of hard working Americans who seem to be falling behind rather than getting ahead. All envision a bright tomorrow in which every American will be safe and prosperous. But there is a stark contrast between the Obama-Biden and the McCain-Palin vision for America. And nowhere is this contrast starker than in their competing plans for health care reform.

It’s easy for candidates to advocate a “free market” for health insurance, but my background as a cardiologist, the founder of a small but quite successful national consulting firm, a recognized expert on measuring clinical quality and cost-effectiveness, a developer of analytic tools to support coordinated, effective, efficient health care markets, and a Medicare beneficiary who once enjoyed rather good private health insurance permits me to look under the hoods and see how the engines will run, where they will take us, and what they tell us about two very different visions of America’s future.

Editor Note - This begins a new feature on Uppity Wisconsin, where legislators will begin submitting blog entries and op-ed features to the blog.  Let us know what you think - we'll start out with State Senator Kathleen Vinehout's column on Health Care Reform.

“We have got to figure out how to fix health care. I think we need to look at what we are doing other places.” The man called my office to share ideas on how to reform health care. “Yes,” I agreed.

What have we done in other places? My constituent was thinking about ideas like workers compensation, unemployment compensation and the state employees’ health plan. Wisconsin has several examples of initiatives taken to solve insurance problems. But so have other states and Wisconsin is actually lagging behind many of those states.

First, it helps to understand the Cadillac healthcare coverage members of Congress receive. They pay no deductibles, no co-pays, and only a $35 monthly fee is taken from an annual salary of $158k. Oh, and they're covered until they die, no matter when their congressional tenure came to an end.

Second, their premiums have remained stable while their coverage has expanded.

Now, consider this recent quote from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and how it stands in contrast to the messages coming from the presidential contenders:

“Healthcare I feel strongly about, but I am not sure that we’re ready for a major national healthcare plan,” Schumer said.

Ah, yes, taxpayers fund your benefits and get nothing in return. If you want to let your Wisconsin reps in Congress know what you think about this, here's how to get in touch with them.

The Hill has more.

I saw "Sicko," Michael Moore's latest documentary, last night, and it is a powerful film.

It's a good bet "Sicko" will do for health care reform what "An Inconvenient Truth" did for climate change: elevate and amplify the debate, and turn awareness into action.

While the health care industry complains that its side of the issue didn't get fair coverage (oh, poor Big Pharma and the managed care industries, whose commercials and political power are soooo inadequate), CNN finds that most of Moore's claims are accurate.

If nothing else, the documentary will leave viewers asking three questions:

1. How did we end up with the overly-expensive yet inefficient system we have?

2. Can we do anything about it if so many politicians take money from health insurance companies that maximize profits by routinely denying coverage?

3. And the big one, guaranteed to be the cause of churning stomachs as the film's credits roll:

I wonder if my insurance will really cover me when I need it - - or will I end up like the people in the movie who had insurance, only to have their claims denied?