Posted by
KsReaganite on Saturday, August 08, 2009 11:32:52 PM
Unlike many doctrinaire conservatives, I do believe that we do have a problem with healthcare in the country. A free, compassionate society cannot forever leave large portions of its population either without healthcare or at frequent risks of losing it. Having a new ten thousand member intrusive bureaucracy with nosy civil servants, however, is not the solution to the problem, especially in a society that values liberty. Rather, measured solutions based on our fundamental social and economic values are the way to approach the issue.
Short term solutions will involve removing the state-line barriers to insurance purchase and allowing small businesses and non-profits to pool employees together to buy coverage. These are changes that can be done through legislation in a matter of weeks and have starting effect in few months.
For the medium term, we have got to look at tax rebates, but with a twist. For those Americans who cannot be covered by Medicaid and cannot afford private coverage, tax rebate coupons can be sent out, such coupons being good only for the purchase of basic health insurance.
Looking at the longer term, simply put we will need more medical professionals out in the field. That means reining in the propensity of lawsuits. But more significantly it also means making those tough and unpopular social policy decisions that help kids do better in the sciences in school so that they get in and graduate from medical and nursing schools. Even then, for a country as widespread and diverse as ours, such domestic supply won’t be enough anytime soon: we will need to make the process of importing and deploying foreign healthcare professionals easier and more streamlined, notwithstanding the knee jerk xenophobia of the Lou Dobbses and Tom Tancredos.
Doing nothing will relegate Republicans even further into irrelevancy. Hence, such an inaction is simply not an option.