Health care and the issues surrounding health care have been a source of debate for the past few administrations. The debate, which is a huge, multi-faceted thing, has been another example of the tired, dualistic kind of arguments like the ones I have seen over thanksgiving dinner or at social events. In fact, I think debates like "Who was the greatest US president?", "Who is the greatest point guard in history?", and "what constitutes a hero?", at a family barbeque receive better and more nuanced arguments than our current political shows and media outlets. Modern debate resembles the "Maury Povich Show", rather than the old "Firing Line" with William F. Buckley Jr. at the helm. Hell, even G. Gordon Liddy's radio show has more reasoned debate than on it than C-Span or Fox or CNN or any other news outlet.
I do not want a debate, although I think debating will certainly take place during the course of the problem solving. I think we can all agree that the current state of health care in the country is pretty terrible. Costs are high, many Americans are not receiving necessary medical care because they simply cannot afford it, or the insurance to cover such care. Many people who are insured are still paying out vast amounts to cover their reasonable medical expenses.
All of you are bright, and capable people. Some of you I have known almost my entire adult life, some of you I am recently back in touch with, gratefully so, and some of you I have only conversed with over the ether on the internet. Working together, we can create a viable solution to the "problem" of health care in America. Some of you have medical experience, some have policy experience, some have the experience of being medicated for long periods of time. Draw on all of this as it will be invaluable when we all try to iron this out.
Here is my modest proposal: together we will create our own health care system. I understand that this system will be hypothetical, and that this entire exercise is probably bullshit. I do think though we can come up with a better system than the one we have. If we come to some sort of understanding, we can perhaps codify it, and attempt to implement in the best possible manner. I figure we can get to that after we are all done working out the details.
What I would like is to present a question, one which I will give an answer to, then everyone can present their own answers to the original question or we can debate the merits and faults of my solution until we come to a reasonable solution to how should we, as a populace, be medically cared for.
Throughout the discussion, I ask that we refrain from ad-hominum attacks. You are all my friends, and I ask that we treat this forum as if you were in my home. I will moderate and ask clarifying questions to keep the discussion going. I also ask that if you cite a study or article or if you are pulling an idea from somewhere other than your ass, you please cite where you are getting your information from. I will occasionally ask people to send links or citations to any reference materials.
What does America's ideal health care system look like?
My answer will be in the form of a comment to the note.
Good luck, and lets figure this one out!
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