Another Look at Health Care (The Cloud of Incomparable Complicatedness)

Both parties are making health insurance reform more complicated and less effective than it needs to be.
Another Look at Health Care (The Cloud of Incomparable Complicatedness)
(Courtesy of Congressman Kevin Brady)
Evan Mantyk
8/26/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/hcchart.jpg" alt=" (Courtesy of Congressman Kevin Brady)" title=" (Courtesy of Congressman Kevin Brady)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1826582"/></a>
 (Courtesy of Congressman Kevin Brady)
In trying to understand the “Cloud of Incomparable Complicatedness” that is health care reform, I first decided to examine a flow chart drawn up by Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), which depicted the proposed program as a bureaucratic mess.

My initial reading of it told me that a Republican put this together to scare Americans about how complicated, and thus overly bureaucratic and costly, any health care reform under the current administration is going to be, and therefore “you better elect a Republican next time.”

To me, I was kind of surprised at how uncomplicated it was. Heck, the inside of my computer is like a thousand times more complicated than Brady’s chart and my computer does neat things like help me communicate with my in-laws in New Zealand and listen to the radio without commercials. Maybe health care reform isn’t complicated enough?

Only after looking at Brady’s chart for a while did the scariest, and ironically the simplest, things on the chart pop out to me. There are two hexagon shapes that don’t really go anywhere. One simply points to consumers and says “Mandate: Buy Insurance” and the other points to employers and says “Mandate: Provide Insurance.”

I won’t go into my own situation (my family is uninsured and we prefer to pay out of pocket), but suddenly the combination of the forced mandate and complicated flow chart made me think less of the inner workings of my computer and more of the 60,000+ page tax code and its almost mean-spirited nature.

Further research revealed that indeed, the current House Democrats’ version of the health care reform legislation would punish anyone that doesn’t have insurance, and who the government says can afford insurance, with a 2.5 percent tax. What?!

Wait, Obama is a really smart guy, and his head even looks like a pencil eraser, so let me try to see his perspective and erase my own doubts. There are tons of people out there who are not buying health insurance or paying hospitals when they could afford to. Instead, they are making taxpayers pay and getting us in even further debt to China (who is mortgaging our soul to the devil).

That naturally leads to the question: why not make everyone pitch in and mandate health insurance? Makes sense.

And yet, I’m equally compelled to ask a rather different question, which is, why not simply withhold health services that are not emergencies until people pay or have people prove their financial destitution before giving them free services?

Of course at this point I find myself neck deep in the “Cloud of Incomparable Complicatedness” that is health care reform, and I am tempted to retreat to the hills of political indifference.

But alas, I shall stay and fight.

Instead of using any mandate coupled with flow charts that people in Texas find frightening, I will offer a few suggestions for how President Obama can go about improving America’s health without any legislation.

President Obama should travel to every state, full campaign style, helping set up three things: (1) volunteer committees to aggressively raise funds—not for political ads, but to pay for universal health care within that state; (2) volunteer clubs that are committed to some type of exercising as a community, whether it be stretching, walking, cycling, or meditating; and (3) new private low-cost eateries that serve wholesome food minus the décor and service (which are volunteer maintained).

Instead of holding town hall meetings to tell constituents that health care reform isn’t as bad as what they think, Democratic Congress members could be helping to organize this. Instead of fear-mongering against the Democrats, the Republicans could be doing the same.

Imagine a politician showing up at the end of your block in running shorts and asking for donations to help those who can’t afford health care. Americans’ common wisdom says that this isn’t the role of politicians. Politicians hold flashy press events, town hall meetings, and collect millions of dollars to promote their agenda in time for the next election. Right?

If health care reform is as important as Obama and other politicians say it is, then it would make things a lot clearer to me if I saw my local 72-year-old Congresswoman at the end of my block—in running (or walking) shorts.

Evan Mantyk is an English teacher in New York and President of the Society of Classical Poets.
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