America’s 2010 realization: long term incumbency leads to losing touch
Senator Leahy visited FAHC today to publicize a $1.7 million earmark he secured for a new Simulator Training Program. However, despite the merits of this program, it would be preferable for Vermont’s congressional delegation to remember the bigger picture. Addressing easy pet projects at the expense of proactive leadership on the difficult elephants in the room is not leadership; it is management… bad management…and a classic rookie mistake.
Small projects like this one are all very nice but 15% of the population remains uninsured, millions more are under-insured, are at risk of losing their health insurance, or remain in nonproductive and thankless jobs simply to maintain their employer-based health insurance. As well, we spend twice as much on health care as almost all industrialized nations on the globe, amounting to 16-20% of our GDP. This cost is unsustainable, is bankrupting America, is causing a significant competitive disadvantage for our businesses and entrepreneurs, and is part of the root cause of our economic mess, budget deficit, and unemployment situation.
Lawmakers who are in touch, open-minded, objective, not conflicted by Special Interests contributions, and committed to figuring out the best way to address America’s health care, economy, and jobs maladies, would recognize that a national health insurance program (Medicare for All) would be the best medicine. This is the only type of reform that can concomitantly make America a better place (universal coverage, improved provider choice) and transformationally improve our economic competitiveness, national debt, and jobs situation (by saving HUNDREDS of BILLION dollars annually). Experts predict savings of $400 billion on administrative costs, $100 billion on drugs costs, and $45 billion on ‘uninsured’ costs. Tort reform could save an additional $50 billion annually. At the very least, lawmakers with these credentials would have co-sponsored Senator Sanders’ Single Payer Amendment last December to at least DISCUSS this promising solution publicly.
Being holed up in Washington for thirty five years would cause anyone to become out of touch and lose ability to feel the condition of most Americans. That would explain Senator Leahy’s prioritization of ‘competition’ as an important health care reform goal. ‘Competition’ should be construed a means to an end (a potential tool for improving health care), not an end onto itself. Its benefits not withstanding in other industries, competition has failed to achieve reasonable access and cost effectiveness for the public good, health care, in America. Thus, Senator Leahy would be wise to look outside the box, abandon ‘old school’ concepts, and be more evidence-based and courageous in his decisions. Almost all Vermonters I speak to are tired of policy decision making based on short-sighted political expectation and conflicts of interest rather than ‘best practice’ for America. Senator Leahy’s over staying of his welcome in Washington, may have nullified his biggest asset, experience.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.