Are you in Canada? As for the "reform" working in the short run, the subsidies will help and the pre-existing condition ban will help (on paper, but the cynic in me assumes there are loopholes).
And yes, it's a short term political win. But the bottom line for me is that I only care about political wins if they translate to policy wins. Unfortunately that hasn't happened on any major issue I can think of, and I don't see it happening any time soon.
...laugh at us about the fact that our country is screwed because the people we voted for decided to stab us in the back and we have basically no power or recourse to keep from going bankrupt and/or dying?
If you would like to laugh at us for that, for some reason, can you at least do so on a website where people are not completely pissed about imminently taking the blame for a bill that none of us like? Can you go to a site where their short-sightedness about insurance reform might actually warrant some derisive laughter? There are plenty of places dominated by delusional corporatists who think they are saving America by trying to stop the "radical Leftist takeover of Health Care". Go laugh at them, or better, try to educate a few of them.
Not every one of us can move up to Canada and laugh at how pathetic America has become. I'm more than a little bit vexed by your amusement.
"Life's rich demand creates supply in the hands of the power, the only vote that matters." --James Michael Stipe, from Begin the Begin.
