Opinion: I’m tapped, so what ideas do you have for health care reform?
Jun 27, 2017, 12:44 PM
(Public Domain Photo)
(Public Domain Photo)
Over the last couple of days, I’ve found myself arguing against the media narrative that 22 million people will lose health care if the Senate bill becomes law.
The truth is, the Congressional Budget Office report said a good portion of people who will not have health care coverage (different than actual health care) will choose to not be covered.
There is a difference.
Right about when I found myself arguing that for the 376th time, I realized that I’d run out of clever or insightful things to say about the health care debate in our country.
So I decided that I’d like to turn that all-important task over to you, the listener (or, in this case, reader).
Robert Ellis wrote, “Government creates the problem to manage and not solve the issue. Think back nine years. Was the health care system broken? NO! The only major thing Obamacare did was provide medical care to 11 million uninsured at the expense of folks who work.
“Prices were rising ahead of inflation but you could keep your doctor and your plan and the premiums were not going up 50-100 percent. Now it is so screwed up it’s danged near impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube.”
Ellis also made some suggestions:
- Make hospitals and doctors post prices on their website.
- Allow health care insurers to sell their products in all 50 states.
- Encourage programs that produce more nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants.
- Allow fast-track approval of all new promising drugs.
Not bad.
Or how about this from Jim Carlson? He called it “Republican Affordable Healthcare 3.0.”
“…at age 35, Americans get implanted with a chip that glows green until age 60 — except for those whose health begins to fail. Their green light turns to red. Then, once a month, everyone goes to a big party where the people with green lights cheer for the red light folks as they are ‘rejuvenated’ into dust, sacrificing themselves for the good of society. And to make sure everyone participates, there is a security force that go after the runners.”
If you’re a fan of old science-fiction, you might realize that (with a few changes) Carlson ripped his idea off from a 1970s movie called “Logan’s Run,” starring Michael York and Farrah Fawcett.
It has potential.
Look, I don’t know if either one of these plans would work, but I did suggest to Carolson that he should consider becoming a politician because almost none of them have EVER had an original idea.
