I:DEA 2 – A Healthy Attitude

Health Care is certainly a key issue in American politics today. Whether it’s Medicare, Medicaid or general health coverage for Americans the political parties and contending candidates are sure to have a position, a policy and a plan. Their positions are most likely party-centric; their policies are polished and thus devoid of substance; and their plans are, well let’s be honest ill-conceived, ill-defined, and ill-advised. This is not a criticism of any one candidate, one party, or one vision for health-care. You can be assured that every political entity seeking to place its/their stamp on health-care is currently misguided and off-track. What then is the Independent voter to do?

There are at least three dimensions that Independents should focus upon. By examining these facets of the health-care issue, Independents can bring to bear their power to force change on the ineffectual approaches and politicians flailing about for success as they guide us to failure. Individual Independents don’t have to necessarily press candidates on each of the dimensions; since there are a sufficiently large number of Independents, it is more effective if candidates physically and mentally see the importance of the numbers behind the questions and issues. The politicians and policy-wonks can be annoyed at one or two questioners, but they will be frightened and prone to flee from the torrent of risk that their simplistic and moronic stances are fomenting; and there is nothing more amusing than a politician running scared from an issue when their towering citadel to health-care is shown to be built upon swamp land.

The health-care dimensions which Independents should thrust into the political arena include the key questions (getting to the facts), the American vision and values to be served, the social choices to be made, and the killer issue – responsibility.

Questions are the easiest and most informing area where Independents can exercise their political influence. Plus just by asking simple questions and listening to the quality of the answers you will get is sure to illuminate the depth (or lack thereof) of the candidates’ personal understanding (or not) and competence (incompetence) on health-care issues. Don’t be surprised if you come away disappointed, it’s difficult to come away with a sense confidence in the candidate given not one has put forward a rational or workable solution to handling health-care even though the facts about health-care provide pretty good guideposts to what needs to be done. So Independents ought to ask:
What is driving up the cost of health-care, and what do you do about it? What role do the federal, state and local governments have to play in America’s health-care?
What should universal health-care appropriately provide (assuming universal health-care were a majority voter-supported policy)?
What is the cost to the country today for the uninsured, and how do you propose to address that cost without a basic health-care coverage policy?
Does the “promote the general Welfare” clause of the U.S. Constitution convey any obligation on the federal government to play a part in insuring that all Americans receive some level of health-care?

The issue of America’s vision and values regarding health-care comes down to an expectation that among America’s goals are insuring that American’s have access to health-care, that there are societal consequences affecting the viability of America from health-care policies and actions, and that the American people are better served if its health-care policies support the economic vitality of the nation rather than erode it. No American thinks it is bad policy to help the sick, injured and infirmed; they are just rightly concerned that health-care is a resource like any other and must be managed and maintained intelligently, effectively, and responsibly. Independents should be seeking some insights into the candidates’ perspectives and philosophies regarding their views and understanding of America’s vision and values for health-care.

Along with the above, Independents need to look for the candidates’ recommendations on the societal decisions that they are proposing America and Americans need to make. To explicitly state what the candidate envisions as the choice/s that he/she is asking the voters to make. To make it clear, Independents should demand that a candidate express what the choice means will happen and what the choice means will not happen; what the public would receive as part of general health-care versus what they would not. Independents need to understand that they are not making a choice of what they want; but rather they are choosing what they have a right to expect and what they do not have a right to expect from just being a citizen of the United States.

Lastly, Independents have to look at how the candidates represent both America’s responsibility and more pointedly the responsibility of each citizen in the approach and policies that the candidate would erect in their personal/party vision of American health-care. For Independents this may be the key to assessing the various views espoused by the would-be leaders of America’s future. This is usually where candidates completely ignore or evade any discussion of their plans; either they don’t comprehend that this is the crux of a health-care plan or they don’t care about reality and viability, only about getting elected and then letting whatever comes come.
Independents have to force this level of discussion out into the public debate for only they will question the party line, only they will turn the light of reason onto the proposals and plans offered by politicians.

The fortunate thing that Independents have going for them in this area is that there is a general course of action that any plan must include. And, once this facet of a proposed plan is presented in a clear, concise and straight-forward explanation of the plan, voters would immediately see the logic of the proposal and their own part in the responsibility requried.