Instead it sounds like some want to find some way to help pay for health insurance in case they need it:
Madrak is applying to blogger Matt Stoller's Blogpac fund for a $5,000 grant to pay for an attorney who could help set up the insurance system. But she imagines that most of the money in the fund would come directly from readers of left-leaning sites, and, she hopes, influential progressive organizations and perhaps even the Democratic Party itself. Such groups would pay into a fund -- in much the way listeners pledge to public radio, Madrak says -- and when a blogger hits hard times, the fund would cover the costs.
I asked Madrak about the difficulty she'd have deciding who's covered and who isn't; after all, I could set up a site tomorrow and call myself a progressive blogger in an effort to get some insurance. Madrak says the fund would set up rules to sort this out, and it would start very small. "Probably what we'd do is look to start something in the Northeast area -- say, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston. We'd work out the kinks, and then try to expand and perhaps set up regional pools around the country."
Which goes to show how outrageous it is anybody should die because of the lack of decent health insurance.
