A Few Words On Healthcare

In my writing I often attempt to cover all the bases when making an argument, I’ve been taught to do this my whole life.  My writing style is often very academic, in that it’s hard for me to do a hit and run on a topic, I’ve been taught my whole life to clearly formulate arguments by using multiple examples and backing them up with more proof.  I haven’t found it difficult in switching to a more, let’s call it “lazy” style of writing, but sometimes I feel like I’m cheating, or not being very thorough.  For the sake of people not spending their whole evening reading my rants, I’ve tried to cut it down.  I will admit though, I am a much better long form writer where I can develop my arguments in a broader manner, I don’t believe I’m going to say this, but I miss those 25 page term papers, there was such a sense of accomplishment and pride when I was through with them.

Anyway, I’d like to take a moment tonight to talk a little about the healthcare debate.  My social and political views will become more evident over time here, so tonight I’ll try and stay on topic.

The fact is, and this is not arguable, that healthcare in this country is going to bankrupt us eventually if left as is.  Everyone knows this, but everyone knows a lot of things, and often nothing gets done.

The Republicans would love nothing more than to see Obama fail.  They know that if they can hold the line here, healthcare will be his political coffin.  I know for sure that there are plenty of great ideas on how to reform the healthcare system in the Republican party, in fact if thoroughly voiced I might even be in greater agreement with them than the Democrats.  They won’t say a word though, because if Obama get’s something significant passed with any kind of Republican support, their chances at winning any house seats in 2010 goes down the drain.  They will continue to use fear tactics, which they are oh so good at, in fact it’s pretty much the only thing they are good at anymore.  So we’ve got the Republicans who just want nothing, shame on them, but that’s reality.

Obama and Pelosi want everything.  They would like nothing more than to give free healthcare to everyone in this country, period.  They have no fucking clue how to pay for it of course.  You will see parts of the bill that say stuff like, we will try this out and if it costs too much we will scrap it, and other things like, if we can’t find enough savings through this or that we will cut back on some things.  This is complete bullshit, and it’s no way to write a bill.  The Democrats have a penchant for promising everything and never being able to pay for it.  And guess what, when it comes time to cut the programs they can’t pay for, they scream at the Republicans for taking away this program or that program which is vital to their constituents.  The Democrats are the party of promising everything, delivering next to nothing, and paying for zilch.  Let’s not let Obama off the hook on the political maneuvering either, his game plan has been just as asinine as the Republicans, at least theirs is working.  It is time for Obama to step up to the plate and deliver a real piece of legislation.  Fuck this stuff about having a conversation with the nation, about going through all the ideas, after which we will all have a Socratic seminar and discuss the philosophical underpinnings of blah blah blah blah.  I love how Obama takes the time to ask everyone at the table their opinion, whether or not they want to give it.  This was something sorely lacking from past administrations, and it got us into a lot of trouble in our foreign policy.  But when it comes to passing legislation, sometimes you need to take a god dam stand and ram it through.  It’s time for Obama to step up to the plate and deliver a real bill, not a bunch of ideas to be argued over.  Let the committees deal with tweaking certain things, but give them a solid bill to haggle over.

We need a healthcare bill that completely demolishes the current system and starts over.  The Cleveland Clinic is a great example of a sustainable system.  Without reworking the way doctors get paid, they will never accept patients on certain health insurance plans, the numbers just don’t add up for them.  We need universal electronic medical records.  We need higher taxes on the stuff that makes us fat and sick, like soda, alcohol, and cigarettes.  I am sick of the rich in this country having to pay for the poor’s bad diet.  And yes, the rich in this country (+1mill/year) need to step up and pay more in taxes.  If we don’t solve this problem, there won’t be much of a country left for your kids to plunder in a few years.  We need to take away the punch bowl from the health insurers, fuck them.  We need non profit privately run health insurers backed by the government to offer health insurance at affordable rates.

Someone needs to step up and fix this clusterfuck of a system that we have, step up to the plate Mr. Obama.

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