A Thought Experiment on Health Care

I was just talking with my mother about this today. She's very Republican, a Fox watcher. But she went through the same stuff I did when Dad got sick and passed away and she has lots of friends who have been put in financial dire straits by an ill loved one. She'd expressed her reservations about the government getting into Health Care and this popped out of my mouth.

Imagine The Government didn't build the US Highway and Interstate System, instead leaving it to private industry. At first it's a good deal. Roads are built between major destinations at no taxpayer cost. Sure, you have to pay your way (via tolls and user fees), but who doesn't have to pay their way in this world, right? As the years pass, the gaps in the system become evident. Smaller places that can't yield enough profit to have roads are put in financial distress; the road companies shrug and say we can't make a profit doing that. How about a subsidy from The Government? We could do it if you help us defray the cost.

Over the years the Road Companies get very big. New technologies provide ways to make cheaper roads and better access to every corner of America, or very nearly. They've also been raising their tolls and charges faster than inflation, because, hey, technology only makes things a little less expensive. There's all these people we employ, research and development on new road surfaces and collection methods, retention bonuses and advertising. Why advertising? Because if people use the competition's roads, we get less money and we can't do our public service for you, the road user.

Sure, at first the toll was only for cars, but ever since we started marketing our Walking Lanez (TM) for folks without cars to get where they're going for a low monthly costs (You saw our commercial about how dangerous those Public Sidewalks are, didn't you? Those things are classic examples of Big Government--I hear they're breeding grounds for crime.), and our new Bike Lanez (TM), we've taken they way you used to travel by road and taken it to the next level. Now we're proud to say you can't take a step off your property without using one of our fine paid connections to the post office, the corner store, we even make sure you can get to see Grandma every Sunday (normal rates apply).

But there are always complainers. People who feel the need to go a lot of places are complaining to their Congressmen that tolls and road fees are eating up too big a portion of their income, and if they suddenly have to make several unplanned big trips they could even go bankrupt. This is America, friends. Everyone must pay their way, right? We even generously offer insurance plans against the possibility of a long unplanned trip for only pennies a day. Not all trips are covered, of course. If you use one of our competitors roads, or you insist on the most direct, flat, and level route, then you just need to realize these things cost us as much as it costs you. Commercials don't make themselves, you know.

So, stepping outside this voice a moment, you have a system where an essential service has been abdicated early on to private industry to the point that no-one alive knows any other way. The fear of change holds us fast, and the fear of having to raise funds from individuals holds Congress fast, and we're paying money into a system that Government can indeed handle (imagine if The Government had built the roads instead--what, you say?). Stepping even further back from this thought experiment, Mom's on Medicare and she's knows exactly what would happen without it. No-one on Medicare wants it to go away.

Stepping back in to the experiment again: Just picture an adult at the height of their earning power who bought a house right near where he needs to be and has no interest in traveling. He just pays his tolls and writes outraged letter about how if he can live this way, then anyone can. But when he has a heart attack and the Government ambulance ready to whisk him to the National Health Service Hospital says "We've got it all covered, sir. We just need the tolls in advance. We take Mastercard and Visa." "I can't afford that! I've never needed it before! You can't plan for something ...like..."

Extreme, yes. But thought experiments are fun that way. And this worked pretty well on Mom. I've heard arguments not unlike this about schools, police and fire departments, but imagining if every single road meant paying up no matter where you went and what you did, and the rapacity of private interests and what they would do to maximize their profits at our expense, is it really such a fantasy?

Support a Public Option for healthcare in this country. Hell, demand it. If someone like Chuck Grassley has to discard every bit of his credibility to preserve the current healthcare system, then you know our elected officials have a price. All we have to do is make it not worth it for them; Congress understands unemployment, because it's something that can actually happen to them.