EDITOR'S NOTE: Below is a selection of responses shared by readers of MDJOnline.com in reaction to recent MDJ stories ...

Around Town: Nuclear no-go - Isakson warns against 'nuclear option' on health fix ...

GC Clark wrote - More drivel from this lackey of the ruling class doing his duty to secure re-election support from his draconian, robber-baron wannabes front for a political party. Hey Johnny, ever ask someone who has to spend months fighting with their insurance company to pay medical expenses and then wind up out of pocket with a sum that puts them in debt if they are relieved that a "socialist" didn't intervene to prevent them from getting screwed? Look into the mirror, dude and keep that comb-over high on each side to prevent the horns from showing through.

Legalize Freedom wrote to GC Clark - Have you been reading up on your Karl Marx lately? The terms you are using sure seem like it. If you like the anti-capitalist, collectivist government, why don't you move to Europe or Canada, where that is how things are run? Why must we change what this country was founded upon? (i.e., free market economy and liberty.) Besides, insurance originally was for catastrophic illness. It isn't a "right." Next thing you know, people like you will say the government needs to pay for our food too. You know, bad things happen. People get sick and it's going to cost money. That's life. It ain't ever going to be perfect. You save up your money and hope you can pay for it when the unthinkable happens. Stop thinking the government is supposed to pay for all your woes.

GC Clark wrote Legalize Freedom - Catchy name you use; sounds like you borrowed it from a Tea Party poster. Pray tell me how health care and capitalism are in congruence? For instance, I know this may be a surprise to you, but capitalism is heavily reliant on profits, OK? And capitalist entities try to maximize profits. Got that? OK, now what incentive does a doctor who is driven to maximize profit, as a capitalist - laissez-faire entrepreneur - have to help you prevent illness and get over it quickly? Does he maximize his profit by having you not be ill at all? What is the incentive to offer cures for diseases when there is an overwhelming amount of capital tied up in treatments that yield increasingly higher payments? I wait eagerly for your intelligent and diplomatic reply. And by the way, my ancestors participated in the war to establish the founding of this country, so I have three words for you for telling me to leave it.

Legalize Freedom wrote to CG Clarke - So, you are against making a profit? How in the world is one supposed to make a living? Like I said, if you don't like capitalism, go to live in a country where they don't have it. You just basically said that all doctors care about is profit and not about helping people. Capitalism is about people working and using their god-given talents in their own self interest, not selfishness. Human beings are flawed and some will be unscrupulous. This can't be avoided. With government running the health care system it will be inept, too expensive, the care will be insufficient and rationed, research and development will be severely curtailed (because there will be no profit incentive to do so!), and worst of all, there will be no reversing it. Bye the way, the politicians in the government will be exempt from the health care that us plebes will receive. This is about loosing our precious freedom. Not about making health care better and more accessible.

Dave-o wrote - It never ceases to amaze me how the naive and gullible continue to vote for the "bread and circuses" offered up by the Marxist Pied Pipers of the Democratic Party. You would give up your freedom in order to be kept up by the "gub-mint." Wait until your "free" health care makes you wait six months for an operation on a condition that will kill you in three, or some bureaucrat tells you you can have a certain medicine because you don't "need" it. It's not the taxpayers' fault that you freeloaders have no job skills because you spent high school in the smoke hole. Quit smoking, cancel your $200 a month cell service, cut back to basic cable, buy a used car and spend the money you save on health insurance, idiot. You can't have champagne on a water budget.

J. Barto wrote - The article on Isakson's comments was excellent and "spot on." We thank Sen. Isakson for standing firm in support with the majority of his constituents. If everyone read the H.R. 3962 (otherwise known as the Pelosi Bill) most would be alarmed at the content, and it still did not cover the most vulnerable patients for which such legislation was intended.

CJS wrote - We have allowed ourselves to be drawn into a debate on health care when the more pressing issue is getting people back to work. We are close to having as many people unemployed and uninsured. Is there a need for health care reform? Yes. Is it more important than getting people back to work? No. The house is burning down and we're debating about changes to the foundation. The politicians (Dems and Rep) are debating health care because they don't have an answer for the economy. We shouldn't let them get away with more misdirection.