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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
www.NationalView.org's Note From a Madman
November 9, 2008
Health Care as a Cure-All
I've written many, many times on the positives of a national health care for all
plan., and now it should become policy.
Out of all of the problems which President Obama will face the day after he
takes the oath of office on January 20, 2009, no one solution is available to
fix them all. However, a real health care reform plan-as-policy will solve many
of the problems.
First, health care for all creates jobs. When an employer doesn't has to worry
about how to pay for a new employee plus paying for part or his health care
insurance, he is less likely to hire that individual. Knowing that health care
is taken care of will allow the employer to hire that new employee. It also
frees up the employer to concentrate on his business, not the business of being
his company's owner, bookkeeper and health care administrator as well.
Next, portable and permanent health care allows entrepreneurs the ability to
leave jobs - jobs they stay at only because some small part of their health care
insurance is paid for by their employer - to start their own business. This, of
course, leads to some of those brand new small business owners hiring some of
their own new employees.
It's the right time to propose health care for all. General Motors and Ford are
both crying about having to supply health care coverage for their retired
employees, then threatening (and sometimes going through with those threats) to
fire ("lay off") present-day employees to make up their respective company's
financial distress. Yeah, I'm familiar with the argument that says they brought
their own fate down upon themselves with shoddy manufacturing and other
practices, but that means nothing in comparison to the fate of their retirees
and present-day workers who have taken less over the years to gain some security
in their later years.
There is an advantage for businesses, both big and small, to support this idea
of Universal Health Care.
The only ones getting rich off of health care insurance are the health care
insurance companies themselves. With overhead costs ranging up to forty percent
that include golden parachutes and giant CEO bonuses, one has to believe that
there's got to be a better way. Assuming that a Single Payer universal health
Care system is off the table (at least for now), how about some regulation
instead? What if we were to cap profits on health care insurers while we
regulate the industry? Surely there is no more basic need for the people of the
United States than keeping themselves and their families healthy.
If we were to require all individuals to carry health care then we should
regulate - yes, REGULATE - that industry. Most states require all individuals to
carry auto insurance if they want to drive on our highways, so doesn't it make
even more sense to have a health care policy out into place to make sure we're
all covered when we are sick?
Health care for all will also reduce the cost of those who only see a doctor
when it's too late. The dollars spent in the latter stages of some diseases
could be better spent on preventative measures. Additionally, families would no
longer have to crowd our hospitals emergency rooms for, what amounts to, free,
public-paid health care. With a real health care policy all individuals will be
able to see a doctor when they are sick.
Now is the time to create jobs and fix the economy and health care as a policy
is the beginning. The Democrats have a mandate and President Obama needs to use
it on health care as a fix for our nation
I sure hope he sees it that way.
-Noah Greenberg
In response to "My Hangover," Mike Costello writes:
Your hangover will get better. we have a big job ahead of us and we're starting
out in a hole. We will do it -- we are, after all, AMERICANS! Yes, I know I'm
shouting. I earned the right.
I remember when you, Eddie (Konczal) and I were at the referenced event. We just
had to keep the faith and keep working. Remember the young Senator from South
Jersey (Cherry Hill) who drove all the way up to speak to us? Well, I'm proud to
say we just put him in the US Congress.
John Adler is now Congressman-Elect Adler in the 3rd District-NJ. I worked on
john's campaign and we won in a district that last elected a Democrat in 1882
(an that's no typo - 1882!).
I still see Eddie and he helped me a lot with local election duties as I was in
South Jersey every day on John's campaign.
When we all work together, we can move mountains.
I don't write to you often but I read.
Thanks Mike... Sometimes hard work pays of, even when we have to wait four
years to realize it. -NG
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-Noah Greenberg