Health Care In America/ The Future Is Around Us

Apr 03

Health Care In America/ The Future Is Around Us

Posted by David on Apr 03 2010 at 05:58 pm

Recently there was a major political battle in America. It was a moment when health-care came into focus. The entire country, through its elected representatives, made some fundamental changes in the way health-care is delivered to the citizens in this country. These changes will take years to be accomplished and in the meantime there will be many, many changes that will affect the ultimate product that becomes life in America for the average (sick) citizen of this country.

In the near term we will see the political backlash that will most likely bring the Republican party increased power in the House and Senate of the US Congress.

Let’s not talk about eradicating the changes that have been made in recent days. Let’s not make the goal to remove all that has happened and return to last year or the year before or ten years ago. Demonizing the left or the right is not the way to bring the nation together and create a better health-care system.

Could we possibly come up with a deal that does not make rich lawyers even richer? Do doctors need to practice medicine with a courtroom looking over their shoulder? Let’s face it. Lawyers are making certain politicians rich. And this is affecting the number of tests you have to endure when you are sick and wondering whether the next Christmas will be your last.

Republicans have some good ideas. Democrats have some good ideas. Let’s just focus on those last two sentences for a moment. Perhaps we can turn them into a mantra and meditate upon it for an hour or so. It would do the country so much good.

Should someone who has taken off a few hours from his job have to wait six hours to see a doctor because 30 million Americans have suddenly made their way to an MD’s office? I hope not. Every American should be able to see an MD when they are sick. In fact most of them do today although they are making their way through the ER’s and clogging up a system that is meant to fix patients with emergency needs.

You can answer that question in your own mind and soul. I will move on to the notion that America needs to find some sort of fiscal sanity in these days of trillion dollar deficits. There are folks who care most about the individual and there are folks who care most about the country as a whole. Hopefully all those folks can get together and share their wisdom. Because saving a child will not mean as much if the country is falling down around his ears. And saving the country will not mean as much if children are dying because they cannot receive good, ongoing medical care.

For the last forty years I have watched people and politicians battle about the same issues. It’s all about the debt, the tragedy of individual loss and rational changes that need to be made.

Let’s try and understand what the other person is saying. Let’s take the best ideas that are out there and fix this thing. As the man in the White House said it is far from finished.