Winners pay losers. That's how an insurance agencys' owner summed up his business to me one day. It's one of lifes simple truisms. In the course of life, rare is the case where what one pays into the health care system in the form of insurance premiums, exactly matches services provided, and clearly, in the long run...well...winners pay losers.
So two large questions present themselves.
- What obligation (if any) do the wealthier and/or healthier memebers of society have to the poorer and less healthy?
- What role does government (if any) have in providing and regulating health care.
The GOP view seems to be the government should have no role in health care. Their plan can be summed up:
First step: get rich
Second step: buy the best healthcare available.
The Dem view seems to be tax the wealthy and institute a forced noblesse oblige, using tax monies to provide healthcare for everyone.
In an era where there's damn little noblesse and even less oblige maybe it's time to take a page from the GOP playbook and really run with it.
Private healthcare insurance. Made as inexpensive as possible. Internet based. Low margins. Ethically run. Utilising green technologies, possibly advocating alternative healing modalities. Basically using the corporate structure for good. It is possible, and profitable. There are many green and ethical companies operating "beneath the radar".
My sense is that people are basically fair at their core and would be willing to pay a reasonable amount for health care. There is an opportunity for good people to step forward and create what this society desparately needs.
To try and solve these problems with government seems like wagging way too much tail, and not enough dog.