Healthcare...A Response

A few days ago, I visited my friend Christine's blog where she discusses the issue of healthcare. I found myself mixed in my reaction to her opinions. Whenever this happens the analytical side of me (which unfortunately is pretty big) kicks in and I try to figure out why I had that kind of response.

The short version is that there were parts of her posting that I very MUCH agreed with such as the idiotic insurance system that will cover everything except those things for which you specifically need healthcare and charge not only the proverbial "arm and leg" but also the whole of your lower torso. An example is my own son who has asthma and when we attempted to get them independent health care, the insurance company said they would not cover any respiratory issues. Duh!

Another point of agreement was the inherent value of all children and the need for an egalitarian system for children. Having worked with people in poverty I also recognized that young adults who are not pregnant are one of the populations that seems to "fall through the cracks" of our current system if they are impoverished or even middle-class without employment benefits.

My main disagreement with Christine's position is the means to the end. While she never specifically comes out and says it, the clear implcation is that she is in support of any political candidate who will make this issue a priority which ultimately means a tax in order to fund the program. I fully recognize that my thinking here is somewhat idealistic because while I applaude Christine's willingness to make a sacrifice, and I would hope given the opportunity, our family would do the same, I have a problem with the government forcing people to contribute through a tax increase or new tax.

Surely, there is some kind of medium ground solution that would provide incentives to the public (esp. the wealthy and corporations) to contribute to such a program. Somehow making the process voluntary while at the same time appealing to those who may not be completely pure of heart. I also believe there is a whole lot of WASTEFUL spending that could be curbed and those funds could be used for important issues such as this.

I am not a politician, nor am I the son of a politician, so I don't have an understanding of the intriciacies of the possibility or probability of such a compromise, but I do agree with Christine that something HAS to be done. I am including a link below to her posting.

http://christinemoers.blogspot.com/2008/02/christine-on-issues-health-care.html