Are we talking about Healthcare, guns, or politics?

At the risk of being booed off of the blogosphere, I’m going to resume my regular writing by going outside of my normal subject area and ranting about the one thing that everyone else is talking about right now: healthcare. First of all, I believe that everyone should have access to affordable and quality healthcare, just like everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of … Okay, you in the back… yes, you with the picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache… please keep your ridiculously nonsensical Nazi comparisons to yourself. And you with the assault rifle, please stop waving it around claiming that it’s your right to make me feel like my life is in danger just because you don’t agree with my opinion. And you, with your finger threateningly pointed my way, please stop acting like you bear no responsibility for the health and welfare of your fellow Americans and human beings. And you, in the way back, with your non-stop, unintelligible shouting for no other reason than to be obnoxiously dissenting against something you really know nothing about, please shut your trap and listen for once; you might learn something. Same goes for you, liberal ideologue who is shouting back, as well as you, overly-partisan Joe-Congressman. And you, former governor of Alaska turned Rush Limbaugh, please speak in complete and coherent sentences and stop sensationalizing EVERYTHING. And you, the “inconvenient” drama king of the FOX network, please try to remember your own healthcare debacle last year and stop pontificating out of both sides of your mouth. And you, madam Speaker, please loosen up a bit and at least acknowledge that good ideas can exist outside of your own head. And you, the great Changer, please change something. And of course you, the general American public, please get a spine and stop only thinking about what’s good for you.

Look, I don’t care how we get this thing done, just as long as we do get it done. I’m sick of politics and arrogance getting in the way. One side is trying to claim the moral high ground, but when it comes down to it, they are not willing to sacrifice their political careers to get it done the right way. And the other side, while bringing up serious and valid concerns, have not even attempted to put forward any solutions and so, as far as I’m concerned, can only claim moral bereavement and partisan one-upmanship. Is this really what we are all about as a people? Is this how we are best represented?

Here's what I suggest: 1) Mandate health care (courtesy of the only major rational thinker we have left: John Stewart). We do it for car insurance so that the insured aren’t paying double for the uninsured. Sound familiar? Even Romney supports it. 2) Civic group coverage. We need to take insurance coverage out of employment and only offer it through civic organizations. If we mandate coverage, then everyone will have to be involved in some kind of civic cause, which will give us some sort of sense of community and interdependence again. This type of model worked for and, I would argue, even created our “Greatest” generation, and it could work again. 3) Take the profit out of healthcare. As long as someone can make money off of something, that thing is bound to be corrupted and ever-more expensive. What decision do you think a healthcare provider makes when a more profitable but less healthful option is pitted against a less profitable but more healthful option? As long as the primary focus is on bringing larger profits to shareholders (the definition of a for-profit enterprise) and not providing the best services for customers (the whole reason government designates non-profit status: in order that a community-focused enterprise can compete with a profit-focused one), we will never get better care at affordable rates. Mr. Obama is right: we don’t absolutely need a public option to fix our problem, but we do absolutely need to take the profit out of sickness. 4) Prevention, please! We need the non-profits before we can get this one for the simple reason that it is not profitable in the short-term to prevent anything. But, at least 75% of our healthcare dollars are spent on treating preventable illnesses, and prevention yields, on average, a life-time savings ratio of 5 to 1 (meaning that preventing an illness costs 5 times less than treating that illness). This means that by simply preventing illnesses, our long-term healthcare costs could be 40% of what they are now. But this model does not maximize the healthcare industry profits, even though it maximizes our health, so it will never happen under our current system.

Most of all: 5) We all just need to step back, settle down, stop listening to the propaganda on both sides, and start thinking for ourselves. Turn off the TV. Turn down the radio. Get rid of the distractions. Put away your guns. Go for a walk (shameless plug) and seriously discuss with yourself or, preferably, another person what you really think needs to happen. When you hit the inevitable point at which you start thinking about how a change would negatively impact you personally or politically or financially, stop in your tracks, think about the millions of uninsured people who are less fortunate than you are, and repeat the following phrase five times, out-loud and as slowly and deliberately as possible: “It’s not about me!” Make sure someone else could reasonably hear you say it without having to listen too intently. Really let the phrase sink in to your psyche. Comprehend its meaning as deeply as you can... and then start thinking all over again.