My head is spinning. I made a nursing visit this evening to a patient who doesn’t speak English, and I’m tired. Communicating through an interpreter is mentally taxing. It’s a lot of work for nurse and interpreter.

On the drive home, my tired brain absorbed the news on WRNI that Governor Carcieri is urging Senators Reed and Whitehouse to oppose the health reform legislation. That’s the same kind of thing I heard from Howard Dean on the radio earlier today. It’s like left and right shoot off in opposite directions only to circle around and collide.

All I have left to ask is whether this legislation– gutted of any public option, filled with benefits for big insurance and big pharma, sprinkled with modest reforms and small improvements– is worth saving. Does it represent a chink in the wall, a small step towards a real overhaul of the system? Or is it a bait and switch that will drain our resources and block the radical change that is needed?