a rare secular moment

To my surprise, a sometimes reader who does not comment on this site has suggested I should write about something. Specifically he wants me to comment on the healthcare issue America is currently experiencing. I rarely if ever comment on secular politics here, I am more likely to do that on Facebook. None-the-less when one of a tiny number of readers asks...

Let's begin by saying something horrible obvious: the current situation is not sustainable. Something over 12% of the population is consigned to a hodgepodge of public aid, public hospitals, emergency room care and massive debt. While the liberal claim that these people do not have access is ony partially true, the systems that do serve them are massively inefficient and over taxed. Companies are less and less able to sustain the costs associated with employee healthcare plans. The economies they are often undertaking put more people at risk. States are financially stressed by the costs of public aid in general and healthcare is for them like the companies the largest uncontrolled cost in their budgets. Doctors are less and less able to practice medicine as they are dealing with out of control malpractice insurance claims, and hospitals are confronted with major books of noncollectable receivables. Yes indeed the situation is a mess.

So, what do we see on offer? More bureaucracy! The various plans competing for a passage in Congress are all based on the assumption that a one size fits most plan administered by the same people who cannot run the VA system effectively will fix the problems. In fact, of course they would fix some problems while creating a lot of others. We also see a huge fear campaign. “Your care will be subject to rationing and (whatever group you are in) wont be the priority group.” Given the utter mess a misled Congress has created, it is actually impossible to know what any of the five bills might create.

We are in the midst of a recession. People are scared to death of loosing their jobs. Seven months after loosing mine, spending at least 9 hours daily looking for a new job, sending resumes literally world wide, I can understand the fear. So Congress and the president respond with a mess of unintelligible legislation hitting at one of the three things most people are most fearful about as they look at their finances. My granddaughter has been taught that “stupid” is a bad word but nothing else seems to fit.

We are 300 million people with dozens of primary languages (America as “English speaking is a right wing myth) even more cultures and religions and regional needs. Congress is exactly the wrong place to solve the problems.

Except, they have something no one else has – money creation authority. And that I think they should use. Next post I will write about how I think the problem could be solved if only some creative thinking were employed. What I know now is that two options are really bad: doing nothing and any bill in Congress.

FWIW
jimB