REVISE, REPEAL, MEND OR BEND?

The above title contains the catchwords of today in regard to Obamacare or the new health care bill. Do we change the bill or get rid of it; do we try to fix the flaws or start all over? It is obvious that the subject of health care is a major concern in the upcoming elections.

I was for some kind of health care program and didn't care if the far right labeled me a wild-eyed pinko socialist. For years I kept getting stuck on the fact that the number one industrial power in the world was the only major nation without a health plan. On the other side of the coin, I was not happy with the congressional compromises, tinkering and end result of the plan that passed. In an earlier blog I used the old saw to describe the healthcare bill as a camel---a horse designed by a committee.

I still think the answer lies in NOT throwing out the whole bill but for a truly bipartisan committee to take the time to break it down, piece by piece, to remedy the defects in the bill. I have enough of the fiscal conservative in me to be suspicious of the efficiency (or lack thereof) of governmental-run programs. If certain aspects of a new health care program can be done better by state and/or local governments, so much the better.

I recently read an article by Sally Pipes, President and C.E.O. of the Pacific Research Institute, decrying the future prohibitive cost of the new health plan. She points out that the new bill creates 47 new bureaucratic entities and 20 pilot programs. In the course of the article she notes that the Principal Financial Group (from whom I receive a small pension each month) is dropping out of the health insurance market where they service 800,000 customers because of the projected cost of the new plan. Principal Financial Group are not small potatoes. She also mentions that by 2013 117,000,000 will have new health care plans and that the Congressional Budget Office believes that health care costs will rise 10-13%. Objectively, I must point out that Mrs. Pipes is not a fan of "socialized medicine" in any form, which doubtless colors her viewpoint.

It would appear, unless a political miracle occurs in the next three weeks, that the Republicans are going to make massive gains in congress and, quite possibly, control the House of Represntatives. I will be relieved when this mudslinging, innuendo-filled, filthy time of campaigning is over and hope, once the election is finished, that congress and the administration can begin to communicate in a civil and rational manner to prioritize some of our urgent needs, among which is health care and a workable plan.

Revise, repeal. mend or bend: just sit down and converse to make bipartisanship work for the national interest. And proper health care is really in the national interest.