About
Citizen Voices is a blog about election politics, written by people like you. Six San Diegans give their personal take on the issues, candidates and propositions.
» Listen to their interviews on These Days
Categories
Recent Topics
Medicated Blogging
As I sit here staring at the computer screen through the perceptual filter of various and overlapping cold medications, the issue of health care reform is about the only thing I can focus on.
McCain has a plan. Obama has a plan. Nader has a plan. Barr has, if not a plan, at least some thoughts on the issue.
While I'd like to think my vote can be completely altruistic, I'll admit my wallet can influence my thinking. I have a good healthcare plan. I have a good healthcare plan because I pay for a good healthcare plan, and chose to pay for it while I was relatively young and healthy.
I'm not trying to say people in different circumstances don't need relief from the current system, but I am trying to point out that I'm one of many Americans who don't fit the two well-publicized demographic blocks on this issue: I'm covered and I'm not dependent on the whims of my employer for that coverage.
I want to scream at all the candidates: design a system for the uninsured and the big business workers if you want, but don't forget the rest of us. The self-employed and the independent contractors who pay our monthly premiums out of our own pockets need to figure into the equation, too.
From where I sit, there is no one plan that fits best for everyone. There isn't even one plan that works better for me. I like the financial provisions of McCain's proposed tax credit. I like the ban on using preexisting conditions for denial of enrollment proposed by Obama, mostly because it might let a cancer survivor like me shop around for a new plan as circumstances change. Philosophically, I prefer Barr's approach that the government shouldn't be playing doctor in the first place, but accepting that they are now in the medical services business. I prefer having a competent and fair plan to simply sticking with the status quo.
So, I want a little bit of everything. I also want more chicken soup, and for a candy striper to swing by and fluff my pillow. Maybe I have had too many cold meds, but shouldn't it be possible? Different plans for different families in different situations.
-Citizen Voices blogger Chuck Hartley is an attorney who lives in Escondido.
-
1 Comments |
Email this |
-
-
-
|
- Permalink:
Comments
Sorry to hear about the nasty cold, Chuck.
While I agree that a one-size-fits-all health plan is doomed by default, that the country is asking the government to get involved says a lot to me about the shift of what medical care means in the U.S. It seems like medicine used to be seen as a miracle of sorts, and maybe a privilege, because of the advances being made. But now, people seem more to view medicine and its breakthroughs as tools necessary to go on living. We want greater accessibility to the miracles. Less of a intermediary approach to medicine, and more of a direct line to the goods.
Of course the internet & availability of information in plain English have everything to do w/the shift; as do the lawsuits against drug makers more interested in FDA approval than healing.
I just don’t think medical care is anymore of a commodity than clean water. The candidates’ plans are not perfect but I hope they’ve left room for improvement. As you said, there are still lots of self-employed and Indep. Contractors who need affordable, good health plans.