the era of the gm takeover, as we know, washington controls the purse strings, pays the bills, dick taits the rules. the same would be true of a washington health care co-op. as leavitt put it, washington health care would result in americans be co-opt rather than being given a co-op. americans are concerned about the cost of the bills being imposed on the other side. an estimate shows that the bill in the "help" committee -- health, education, labor, and pensions -- or the draft bill crate creteed by the senior senators from massachusetts and connecticut -- that's the piece of legislation we're talking about -- would cost $1 trillion over the course of 10 years. but only would reduce the number of uninsured by 16 million people. so $1 trillion would bring 16 million people into the insured status. for those that would be newly covered, the cost would be $65,185 per person. for ten years of coverage. that's only a preliminary estimate for part of the plan. of course, a preliminary estimate does not tell the whole story. what would it cost to cover the remaining 31 million who are thought