A Few Thoughts on Health Care

Heath care has been in the news quite a bit recently. I suppose I don't have anything particularly substantive to add to the conversation but I do have a few thoughts.

1. Honest, civil political discourse in this country is dead.

As I mentioned above, health care has been in the news constantly for quite some time. Pundits and talking heads claim that there is some kind of "debate" taking place. I think I must have missed it because all I've heard and read about is partisan argument centered around the idea of heath care.

You may say that argument is debate. On a certain level I concede that that is true. It is quite difficult to debate without some genuine difference of opinion. However, in a true debate the issues that form the foundation of the disagreement are the focus of the debate and are brought to the forefront and discussed openly and frankly. I don't see this happening in America today with regard to health care. The "debate" doesn't appear to be centered on anything even remotely related to health care. Instead, the major participants (partisan lawmakers)focus on ideological political differences that often have little if anything to do with the issue at hand. The real issues (whatever they are) remain around the periphery of the argument and are occasionally entertained. However, lawmakers have discovered that it is much easier to say, "we're right about health care because the Republicans are wrong (and vice versa)" than it is to actually study the issues, devise a viable solution and explain why it is sound. When lawmakers in this country decide to engage in a real debate I may start paying attention.

2. The Rise of the Republocrats.

The previous paragraphs may make it seem as though I am not paying attention to the health care "debate" (especially since the last sentence claimed that I may START paying attention to the debate in the future). To be honest, I have monitored the discussion as well as a man can without a television. Most of what I hear makes me either laugh hysterically or vomit with rage.

All the Republican palaver about how the Democrats are slowly turning the United States into a socialist paradise really tickles me. I don't think that the Democrats are suggesting that we completley collectivize health care. But even if we did I'm almost certain that the act would not make us all socialists. There are plenty of public goods that are administered by the government: roads, education, etc. Are we all socialists because we drive on geovernment built roads and were educated by poorly paid government employees? The U.S. could collectivize health care and still maintain its capitalist dignity and credibility. There would simply be much less money in the private sector, a thought which terrifies Republicans. (NOTE: I'm not endorsing socialized medicine, I'm simply stating that one of the key arguments against it seems flimsy to me.

The Democrats are just as bad. I wish they would figure out that they can't be all things to all people. Also, it always astounds me that they fail to take into consideration the price tag that comes along with being all things to all people. You'd think that with all that trust fund money they could hire and accountant.

I wish we could take the best from both political parties and form a super party. They do this in music all the time so why not politics. I say we call the new party the Republocrats. If you took the evil and fiscal responsibility of the Republicans and coupled it with the naivety and basic human decency of the Democrats I think you'd have a party capable of governing something. At worst it would be as competent as the band Damn Yankees.

3. Doctorbs

I'm actually quite thankful for doctors. In college I found most pre med students to be insufferable jerks. Most of them thought that they were superior to other students because they were working towards a greater, more noble goal and were smarter than everyone else. They were wrong on both accounts. There is nothing more noble about being a doctor than there is about being a garbage man. If anything I think garbage collectors are infinitely more noble. It takes a special person to debase himself for the common good. Besides, if we were all swimming in refuse and a sea of rats because of a lack of sanitation workers, all the doctors in the world couldn't save us. Also, doctors aren't inherently smarter than the rest of us, they just study more, plain and simple.

When my daughter was born prematurely I had