They are not any where near scared enough. I want to see them really squirm, and then melt into a puddle like the Wicked Witch of the West. Their current complaint is that the current proposal to force us to all buy insurance isn't strict enough. The penalties aren't high enough. They're afraid that we won't continue to buy insurance. I have bad news for them. If they quintuple the cost, nobody will buy insurance. Even the rich will find a better way.
We already know that insurance companies have zero interest in our health. The best deal for them is if we get sick and STAY sick. They don't pay for prevention because it might eliminate potential customers. They'd rather we get diabetes, cancer or heart disease. Then we'd need expensive and lengthy care.
One Democrat said that the Republican plan is for us to die quickly. He wasn't honest about the Democrat plan. Their plan is for us to die slowly, and pay out every dime we have, then go into debt. This is oversimplified, but it's fair. In our congress, both sides are corrupt. They've been riding the gravy train along with insurance, hospitals and pharmaceuticals, and they don't want to get off.
What we need is one of two things. These are the two options I see:
1) Single payer health care, like France or Canada, in which basic treatments and prevention are available without charge to all people. The downside of this, as I'm sure you know, is that quadruple bypasses and high-dollar experimental medicines will only be available for the rich. Single payer systems cover the treatments that heal the most people with the least payout. Thankfully, basic prevention fits into this category, and that is the aspect of health care that is utterly missing from our "keep-em-sick-for-profit" system. While "socialized medicine" has been demonized in the press and people continue to deny that it is a good option, it appears to me that it is the best option that we have any chance of getting passed. The glorious thing about this is that it removes the majority of profiteers from the health care game without having to reverse all the dismal laws that have been passed in the last 30 years.
2) Government non-involvement. This is what the tea party people and some Republicans are shouting about. Unfortunately this idea is not being well articulated. What we have now is NOT non-involvement. What we have now is a system of government complicity in health care business highway robbery. Our constitution allows corporations too many "rights", and many years of corporatist government have given insurance companies tax advantages and much more. When the tea party people say they'd like government to "stay out" of healthcare reform, they're missing the point. Government needs to "GET OUT", not stay out. Insurance/hospitals would fight more violently against this, if it were entertained. The conservatives who should speak for this option are not. This option is much more true to American principles of freedom and self-determination, but it won't be well understood until the Republicans stop being twits. Which doesn't seem likely any time soon. The few individuals who see clearly how reforming the tax structure and corporate law would reduce health care costs and improve delivery aren't getting airtime.