We commenced our snailmail communication while he was still in the States. He being one of the most conservative people I know, and I being one of the most liberal people he knows, our correspondence frequently touches on politics and policy. As you may have guessed, he's not a big fan of govt involvement in health insurance... but he's open-minded enough to make an argument:
"I think I would have more respect for the Dems if they could point to ONE country or state whose system they like. Aren't there >50 reasonably civilized countries that have largely government run plans (though vastly different in detail)? Can't we point to ONE that we like, or perhaps a few that we want to pick features from? My faith that, say, the Netherlands has improved and learned over the years is much greater than that, say, Chuck Shumer will invent something one Thursday night that is better than anything anyone else in the world has come up with in the past 50 years."I have to agree with him.
Furthermore, this Dem failure to aggressively, adamantly adopt some existing alternative, and promote it to the hilt, seems a singular strategic blunder.
What we'll end up with is a horrid patchwork that will not solve the core problem - the core problem being that health insurance is priced out of range for a large number of our fellow citizens... and is getting more expensive by the minute!... Somehow the 'richest country in the world' is happy to let significant numbers of its citizens die rather than get timely, high-quality medical care.
I don't understand it.
Any other country's health plan is based around a singe payer system or universal coverage. The tea baggers then scream bloody murder about socialism. It's terrible that a few bloody idiots throwing temper tantrums like a three year old have so much political power in this country.
ReplyDeletePrecisely. Add American Exceptionalism. We are soooo special that the experience of others does not apply to us.
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