Save The Post Office! Pass Universal Health Care!

PB has noted yet another of what are surely many surprising consequences of a universal health care system: More reasonable alternatives for women in labor. Here's another one, courtesy of my favorite radio talker, Thom Hartmann. The U.S. Post Office, you see, is mandated to pre-pay health care benefits for its retirees, a cost of approximately $5 billion a year. Part of Postmaster General John Potter's plan to cut costs is to end this mandate. Of course, as U.S. News & World Report notes, such a move would require approval by the union and by Congress. Fat chance. A single-payer system, though, or a Medicare buy-in or outright expansion would nip that $5 billion cost right in the nuts, now, wouldn't it?