Perhaps the best option for Americans who truly care about their future health care would be to ask of their elected Senators just a few facts before their chamber votes. The outcome could shift for better or for worse both the nation's health and its mountainous tax debt.
1. Will it save money for all, or at least most tax-paying Americans?
The focus over the last 12 months has been on primarily the 15 percent who don't have coverage and another 10 percent of the population squeezed out in various ways from pre-existing conditions to catastrophic experiences. This is by no means the majority who, according to polls like their coverage and services.
Further, shifting the burden from your health bill to your tax bill (or someone else's) isn't technically saving money. Accountants would call it hiding costs. Psychologists might call it enabling addiction to something out of control-namely government tax-and-spend subsidies.
2. Will it preserve quality for those who pay for their care?
One of America's signature successes has been the medical community that leads the world in healthcare quality. This spans from world-class medical research and education to the millions of patients receiving these life-enhancing benefits.
3. Will it preserve choice in doctors and options?
One thing that separates democratic freedom from socialism is consumer choice. Americans are accustomed to making their own decisions and taking responsibility. Once that freedom is turned over to a larger government we won't really need to rush home if we have an accident in France or Canada.
4. Will it promote free-market competition to improve services?
A hallmark of American enterprise is our ability to influence our consumer outcomes with our decisions and purchases. One might wonder why we would allow the healthcare sector to lose its competitive ability to less efficient government control. Your Senators can vote for intrastate insurance competition and other means of boosting the market without throwing it all overboard.
5. Will it increase prevention and education that saves health and lives?
Will there be practical provisions for lowering the top 5 preventable diseases, which cost the nation far more in late-stage treatment? Will we begin to hold people accountable for their health decisions on a life- and education-cycle basis?
6. Will it look better in 10 years than the system does today?
Spending over $800 billion dollars over 10 years used to be a monumental issue. In 2009 this amount seems to be another whim in the imagination of voters who think the government just prints money. It is hard to imagine the consequences for our children and their children if-well, it sort of just didn't work out the way they thought.
Robin R. King has over 20 years of senior-level organizational management experience directing strategy-led, national organizations in economic communications, government relations, policy issues management, and brand strategy for organizational growth.
