I will be the first to admit that I do not have all the answers to our healthcare crisis. And yes, I consider it a crisis. More than solutions, I have lots of questions, and I would love to be in a “think tank” with a diverse group of people to help find answers to them. Here’s a sampling:
Why are we so focused on the solution to healthcare when we spend so little time working on why so much healthcare is needed?
Why are we the 32nd healthiest country in the world but we lead the world in per capita healthcare spending at over $12,000 per year per person, 42% higher than the next highest country?
Why are we blaming people for their own obesity and subsequent health problems when processed foods are so much cheaper than healthy foods?
Why are we feeding our students such horrible school lunches and letting them wash it down with a cookie?
Why are drugs so expensive, especially when they have vastly different prices in other countries? Why must a family with three kids have to spend every extra cent on medicine for their one sick child?
What good is health insurance when it doesn’t adequately protect us from a medical catastrophe being the cause of financial ruin?
Why is our health insurance tied to our employment? If you have a pre-existing condition, you may be forced to stay in a job you dislike simply because of the insurance. Not much freedom in that.
I have to admit that the more I learn about universal health care, the more I like the idea of it. But it’s not been presented well. Not enough Americans have been shown exactly how much less they might pay for health insurance. They don’t understand that health insurance won’t force you to stay in a job you hate. They don’t understand that it gives people the opportunity to take a risk on leaving a job in order to start their own business, without worrying about leaving their healthcare. They don’t know that many small businesses could hire more people if they didn’t have such a gigantic burden of supplying health insurance.
There’s a fair way to get there. It WILL require bipartisan effort. Until civil, compromising dialogue can happen in regards to healthcare, nothing will get better. I’d like things to get better. As a state employee with a pre-existing condition who’s a little scared to leave my health insurance (I have a heart condition,) the freedom of universal healthcare is appealing to me. I think both parties owe it to the American people to have a civil conversation about it. We are, after all, the only developed nation in the world without it.
Original source can be found here.
