Let the Marketplace decide, but what if it says 'No'?

You know, there are some common and predictable things that politicians and pundits and callers and anyone who fancies himself or herself political, like to beat their chests about, dress themselves up in, proudly pin to their hat or sleeve or whatever, and, well, you get the point.  All of which makes me want to throw up.

So, what are these common things?  Just to brainstorm on these in no particular order:  "conservative", "free-market", "cut taxes", "family values".  That's enough.

Politicians, pundits, all of them, when they talk about these things, it becomes readily apparent they have no idea what any of them are, or how, as principles, they should impact public policy and law.

Now, that's a sweeping generalization, to be sure.

Some people know.  But very, very few, I find.

Those who proudly call themselves "conservatives" in recent years have favored, let's see:  (1) unpaid-for wars and nation-building in lands far, far away; (2) a marriage amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman; (3) a significant broadening of the federal government's ability to snoop on its citizens without first convincing a member of the judicial branch (i.e. a judge) of any good cause for doing so, a.k.a. the "Patriot" Act, if ever there was a more poorly named law; an lastly (4) a gutting of agencies like the EPA and of environmental protections in general (under George W. Bush).

Now, anyone who has looked up the definition of conservative knows conservatives are for (1) a relatively small federal government; (2) no debt - not just no deficit, but no debt, and paying one off quickly if one comes about; (3) an eschewing of foreign entanglements and nation-building; (4) individual liberty and privacy protections, including the government staying out of your bedroom; (5) oh, and conservation (see the similarity with that word?) and environmental protections.

You can't believe, or maybe you can, how many buggers wrap themselves in the word "conservative" and vigorously go after policies expressly not conservative.

"Free-Market" is the one that gets me, particularly as respects the current healthcare debate.  A lot of Republicans (a LOT, as they often say on Monty Python) will say, "I'm against a government takeover of healthcare.  I prefer the free-market determine our healthcare system."

Ok, great.

"But you want balanced budgets, right?"

"Absolutely I do?"

"Well, you realize that our free-market system has evolved into something where we have the most expensive healthcare per capita in the developed world, and an annual inflation rate in the cost of health care which is continuing to accelerate that fact, causing more and more businesses each year to have to stop providing coverage for employees, and creating a trendline for the cost of Medicare which is unsustainable and will bankrupt the U.S. Treasury, right?"

"Balderdash.  I don't believe a word of it."

"Well, are you for people losing their health insurance?"

"Absolutely not."

"So, how will you stop more and more companies from dropping coverage?  You know, that's happening.  I can show you the numbers."

"Well, you let them buy it in the free market!"

"What if they have a pre-existing condition?  Insurance companies don't want them.  They know day-one if they write those folks their profits will decrease, so they refuse to write them.  Do you want them to be uninsured?"

"Well, absolutely not.  My wife has a pre-existing condition."

"Ok, so, then, how does the free market get them covered?"

"Well..er..well, well I can tell you this!..the answer is not government-run healthcare!"

And so it goes.

I, personally, am for a free-market solution so long as the free-market provides one.  If it doesn't, then I'm for some other solution.

Call me crazy.

Trust me, there are lots of things a free market won't give you that you very much want, such as clean air and clean water and beautiful parks, like Yellowstone and Yosemite, and no 7-11 or, worse, sex shop buying the house right next to you and moving in.

The free market goes wherever and does whatever it believes will give it the lowest expenses and the highest profits.  End of story.  That's your free market.

If the free market were going to provide health insurance coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, people who have lost their jobs and are temporarily out of work, and people of low incomes - here's a news flash for all you free-marketers - IT WOULD HAVE.

Or, is it your belief that we just have to give the free market a little more time?  Kind of in the same way Republicans are always looking to the next election rather than help to govern during the time following the last one, and Palestinians are always somehow hoping that Israel will catch some plague and just go away.

I like the free market.  A LOT.  And it's a useful tool but it does not solve all things.  Healthcare is one of them, I hope you will grant me.  And, if you are a good, loyal Republican, I hope you will call out your own party, your own representatives, your own fellow Republican lunch mates around the lunch table, when they start beating their chests about a free-market solution for healthcare.  Just ask them, "How would that work, exactly?"

Comments

[Marty Lynch]

Joe, Glad to see you're not brain dead, but there still is a lot of mush in there. I can appreciate those democrats who believe this country should have a single payer health care system. I strongly disagree, but at least they're very clear. It's the rest of the democrats that are absolute idiots. They keep calling for health care reform, or better yet a major overhaul.

There are problems with the delivery of care, and there are people who don't have insurance coverage; but there really isn't anyone who doesn't get truly needed health care services.

I think that you could get a strong majority of people to agree that we can find a way to make certain that those who truly can't afford coverage can be added to one of the many exsisting programs, likewise for those with pre-exsisiting conditions.

Aren't we trying to swat a fly with a sledge hammer? Couldn't we just look at the shortcomings of the system and address those.

You lose your job, which means you lose your paycheck, which means you go on COBRA, except you no longer pay a percentage of the premiun you have to pay the entire premium. Tough to do when there's no paycheck. Find a solution.

I totally understand insurance companies requiring a waiting period before covering pre-existing conditions. Why, for example, would any single young guy get coverage before he needed it? Oh, you need surgery, time to get coverage. Oh, they found a tumor, time to get coverage. Find a solution.

Those who simply don't have the funds; expand the eligibility of one or many programs already in place, Find a solution.

President Obama says we are going to save money because we're going to attack Medicaid fraud. Couldn't we just do that now? If it's as simple as Obama makes it out to be, let's go after the fraud starting tomorrow morning.

I'm sure you can add other things that need to be addressed. But can't we find a solution to each of these problems one at a time? I bet they could do it in a whole lot less then 2,000 pages.