I have no doubt…

…that whatever form the health insurance reforms that finally come out of Congress and on to the President's desk take, the bill will be but a pale shadow of the sweeping reform in health care delivery that I think our country needs.

I am dismayed that, in the end, the greatest beneficiaries of those reforms will likely be the health insurance companies themselves. More food is not a cure for tapeworms.

I don't imagine that, assuming something called a "public option" is part of the final bill, that the surviving "public option" will be an option for much of the public.

Still…

I have no doubt that lives will be extended because people with a need for long term treatment will not be denied those treatments because they're coverage has hit a lifetime maximum.

I'm delighted that rescission of benefits, absent actual fraud, at the time of need and denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions will no longer be features of our health insurance system. It's bad enough that we don't cover people who can't pay for coverage, but it's insane that we've refused to cover people who can, and in the case of rescission, have paid for coverage.

Whatever the final health insurance reform bill looks like, I'm sure it will mean that coverage will be extended and improved for millions of Americans. I'm certain that it will mean saving and extending millions of lives.

If the bill only offers, and it seems certain to offer, the elimination of lifetime maximums, denial for pre-existing conditions and rescission in the absence of fraud, it'll be worth doing.

The heavy lifting for real health care reform will remain to be done, but this is definitely a case where doing damn near anything is better than doing nothing. People's lives are at stake.