A Public-Private Plan, A Private-Public Plan, or Something Stupid a Congressional Plan

As Congress and the public fight about the ‘public plan’, I would say debate but that would imply even a minimal level of cognitive thought, the American public will continue to be misled by one faction or another. Pathetically, the lack of awareness about the pros or cons of a public option does not originate from different groups which are actively engaged in deceiving or misinforming the public. The failure results from rigid mindsets on all sides that there is only one form of a public option. To help obscure this oversight, the American public is consistently ill-served by political parties that are only capable of seeking positions that support a core constituency’s emotional trigger issue regardless of its relevance to the question at hand. The politicians themselves are functionally useless leaders who are apparently unqualified and untrained in practical problem solving on any topic outside of funding raising, corruption or scandal. This self-imposed political imprisonment that restrains our government from seeking creative ways to address public needs and issues is produced by the ever increasing emphasis on turning every issue into some divisive election issue. Because as I am sure you all agree, there are no areas or issues facing the American people on which the two parties and their current cast of clueless clowns could come to a common cause.

The news media owns a disproportionate share in accountability on this problem. The media has turned more and more into reporting the news as a action only event. No analysis, no evaluation, no critical assessment of what the actions are purported to be about and whether there is a rational and logic connection to the issue. The news media has found that entertaining has become more profitable and less costly than informing the public and confronting the problems of the day.

And let us not pass over ourselves. The most egregious culprit is that the public, the folks who elect the politicians, because we collectively are turning our politics into culture wars. The important factor on any issue is whether it conforms to a party view point or not, or whether there is some way to cast the issue as an ‘us versus them’ issue.

The ‘public’ option is such an issue within the Health Care Reform bill. The word ‘public’ has been transformed into government-controlled, into socialism, and into more welfare. Why, because these are hot-button topics. Who doesn’t know that you can get people outraged and excited about anything if you say that it’s going to give the government control over your ___? So the public option is first characterized as an attempt to give the Government control over the health care system. Once I make that statement I can then extend the argument, and tell you that if this happens then the Government will start making decisions about what medical decisions and treatments you will be allowed to have.

So if this is your “big hot-button” issue with the public option, why not tell your representative that you are only willing to accept a public option if it doesn’t allow the Government to be involved in medical decisions. After all, it the bill explicitly prohibited the Government from that involvement, what would you be afraid of then? And I am sure that there will be another issue that you or someone will be able to raise; but the fact that you can raise the issue doesn’t mean that there is not a solution to your issue.

And that is the great failure of our politicians, media, and ourselves. We are not evoking the tremendous power of the American way of life, the creativity of our Yankee ingenuity, the vast innovative spirit that brought America to its prominence in the world.

Imagine a variant of the public option that would be:

• Sponsored by a Government agency but provided by private companies who compete for that business. An actually profit-motivated system.
  
• Sponsored by private companies and only qualified by and comparatively assessed for premium payments.
  

A minimal public plan incorporated into all private plans, and which can be offered as a stand-alone plan for anyone who elects to or can only afford the minimal offering.

In none of these of these alternatives does the Government control medical treatment decisions by design.

So if we cannot get a Health Care Reform act passed through Congress, it won’t be because there are no ways in which a plan could be crafted to satisfy the expectations of the American public, or the philosophies of the Republican or Democratic parties, or even the profit fixated health care industry. We will fail because the effort has become a political issue and not a health care issue. We will fail because of stupidity. The stupidity by the way, can be assigned to pretty much everyone.