Here in a nutshell, is the insanity of the so-called healthcare debate going on in Washington.

But before I describe the lunacy (or what should be called, how the politicians will protect the American health insurance industry), allow me to say something most of us already know. Though a public option is no panacea, if we don't get a real public option and force real competition on this parasitic industry, "reform" will be branded the Democratic catastrophe and President Obama will own this sham.

About a year ago, Wellpoint was faced with declining profit margins. So what does any good for-profit insurer do, when profits are tanking? They raised their premiums. Then what happened? Well recession depression battered Americans couldn't afford these monstrous payments for junk insurance, so 189,000 Wellpoint customers gave up and dropped the coverage entirely. Now it doesn't take a genius to know that if you raise premiums, and they go from garden variety unaffordable, to unaffordable on steroids, and you do this in order to increase profits, you'll lose a lot of customers. This is exactly what happened.

Flash forward to October 2009. With enrollment still declining (due to unaffordable premiums), Wellpoint is cutting jobs and the unaffordable health benefits it provides its own employees.

This is from Bloomberg. Like the rest of us, Wellpoint employees will pay more for less. They're getting higher deductibles, higher co-pays, and less reimbursement. This is known as cost-shifting, the employer shifts more of the costs onto the shoulders of the beleaguered employee.

WellPoint Inc., the largest U.S. insurer, dismissed a "small number" of workers last week and announced cuts to employee health benefits today, in its latest attempt to deal with the recession’s toll on enrollment. WellPoint eliminated the positions last week and expects to let more go before year’s end, though the number will be "relatively small," Kristin Binns, a spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. The company will also raise deductibles and premiums for some of its employee health benefits, the Indianapolis-based insurer told workers in a memo today obtained by Bloomberg. WellPoint, like its competitors, has seen health plan enrollment shrink this year as employers cut jobs and benefits amid the recession. Chief Executive Officer Angela Braly cut 1,500 positions in January, and last week the company said it was reviewing its "size and skills" to improve efficiency. The job cuts are "really just an ongoing effort for us to cut costs and run more efficiently," Binns said, calling the changes "economy-driven." In the memo from Randy Brown, WellPoint’s chief human resources officer, the company said it would lower its contribution toward worker premiums and raise deductibles in two of its three benefit plans. "Your cost per paycheck will probably increase," the memo said. WellPoint has 42,000 employees.

Now let's move on to what's being discussed in Washington, specifically the sort of junk insurance Max Baucus is trying to foist on the American people. There's a lot of talk these days on what is called actuarial value. Essentially this is the amount of out-of-pocket costs you and I will be responsible for even after paying the unaffordable premium.

And wouldn't you know it. Sure as day follows night, insurers are hard at work fighting to maintain the huge penalties being proposed for those Americans who choose not to buy their junk insurance.

Wellpoint employees (those who haven't been fired), still have it pretty good. WellPoint covers 82 percent of its workers’ health costs, which is well above the 65% Mr. Baucus is offering on his bronze plan, which will undoubtedly be the only affordable option.

Do yourself a big favor and read this article from the New York Times. It will give you a sense of the junk insurance the politicians intend to make us buy.

The four levels of coverage allowed by the Finance Committee have actuarial values ranging from 65 percent for the bronze plan to 90 percent for the platinum plan. The Senate health committee prescribes three levels of coverage, with actuarial values from 76 percent to 93 percent. The House bill also calls for three levels of coverage — basic, enhanced and premium — with values from 70 percent to 95 percent. By contrast, the Congressional Budget Office says, the actuarial value of policies bought in the individual insurance market now averages 55 percent to 60 percent. For insurance plans provided by employers, it said, the average value is 80 percent to 85 percent. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the value is slightly higher, 87 percent, for the standard Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan available to federal employees, including members of Congress.

So here we are on October 6th, still very much in the woods about where all this is going, but with the fate of the only piece that matters, a strong public option, very much in doubt.

I want to leave you with a very moving video. There was a demonstration outside the Minnesota headquaters of UnitedHealth, six people were arrested. I think we're going to see more and more of this sort of non violent action going forward, especially if the "reform" legislation mandates all of us to buy private, for-profit junk insurance without a public option.

It brought tears to my eyes.

The movement for healthcare rights is the civil rights battle of our generation.