Healthcare - What To Do If We Want It Done Right!

With all the press about the far left, the far right, moral imperatives and whether we can afford it or we can't afford not to "reform" it, I hope that the vast majority of people can be reasonable on the health care issue. What I believe most people will agree on includes:

1. Health care costs are out of control.
2. Providing health care to all is a reasonable moral goal.
3. Cost does matter.
4. Our representatives are responsible for understanding a bill that they will vote on.
5. We are all entitled to our opinion.

Although I will expand on each of the above issues separately in future blogs, let's see where the questions will lead us and ultimately what the answers should be. The two basic questions that will clarify a direction for the majority of the "reasonable" people in the country are:

1. Can we implement a health care bill no matter what the cost will be.
2. Do we allow politics, fear or blind faith to replace rational, objective sound judgment in crafting a historic congressional bill.

Let me briefly explain why I have focused only on people who belong to the "reasonable" segment of society.

• The word reasonable means sensible, rational and realistic. Hopefully this applies to the average person, which also constitutes the majority of the people in our country.
• Our laws and culture have always used the mindset of the "average" or "reasonable" person in determining what is right or wrong.
• Both the extreme right and the extreme left wings find all sorts of justification to support their views, no matter how many "reasonable" people may object or be hurt by those views.

So how to we put this all together so we can move forward on the decision making process. Well, let's say you go to a doctor complaining about pain in both your knees. After a short physical examine the doctor says he believes you have extensive damage in both knees and he wants to admit you right away and replace both your knees. You say "wait a minute, aren't there some tests that you can do before I have both my knees replaced?" The doctor says "who's the doctor here! If I say you need to replace your knees, you need to replace your knees. How dare you question my judgment!"

I am sure that you would be finding another doctor. You would have some tests done, have the doctor show you the test results, fully explain your knee problem and the "choices" you can make. Why would we not do the same for an event that will have a major impact not only on your health, but on the health 0f everyone in the United States. So where does that take us to - what can we do. Start by using the KISS method (that's right - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID). Ask yourself who are the people that are responsible to review all the information, create reasonable solutions to resolve the problems and EXPLAIN THESE SOLUTIONS AND THE CHOICES WE CAN MAKE! You guessed right - our Congressional Representatives are our legislative "doctors".

I know that some of you want to give up already, but we can't because we have too many people that are counting on the majority of citizens that are reasonable and will ask the right questions. Here is what we can do. Demand of all our representatives/leaders to respond to the following:

1. Have you read the entire bill so that you can provide us with an thorough understanding on what the bill will do and how it will do it.
2. Provide us with a summary explaining what sections of the bill do what (if a cop can reference the sections of the traffic law that apply to a ticket that they write, our representatives should be able to cite the sections of the bill that will have tremendous impacts on our lives.)
3. Explain the "year to year cost impacts" that the bill will have (you wouldn't let anyone buy a house because they saved their money for years and then would predictable run out of money based on their annual income - why would we let anyone run a country like that!)
4. Represent that there are no provisions or lack of provisions that will allow a future interpretation to change the regulations and thereby changing the original intent of the bill.
5. Demand that this information be put into writing so that it is part of the representatives formal record.

If you write, call and email as many of the country's representatives demanding this information we will find out who the "good doctors" are.