About that public option…this summer, I met a guy who designed an approach to sustainable healthcare reform, based on "front loading" with use of revenue bonds  - just like other utilities. This could affordably expand and assure access, save costs, prevent system fragmentation and minimize inflation with no downside risk. No deficit. A bona-fide public option.

He’s presented this strategy (HIRB™) to politicos and industry wonks, mostly meeting with astonishment at how practical and possible this approach could be, although it would (cough) require repurposing and reconstructing the entire financial system. He’s IN DC this week - we’ll see what happens. 

Are our representatives sincere about reform? Let’s be realistic about how beholden they are to the insurance and phama industries, by design. If President Obama shares this dilemma, we’ve got to stand firm and press him for true reform.

It seems hoards of under or un-employed citizens are getting plenty of time to tinker and dream up all kinds of concepts for healthcare, energy use, pollution reduction and other pressing challenges we face. Consider that in FDR’s day, the average guy or gal didn’t have access to computer technologies, global research tools and sophisticated CAD modeling systems. Starbucks is but a holding tank for American ingenuity.

We got gung, so where’s the ho? We’re due for a National Innovation Council for receiving, vetting, testing, funding and implementation of fresh solutions. The future is right here in our laps. If we can only pry all those greed-stained fingers out of our sad, old, tattered pockets.

The HIRB idea sounds interesting, and we definitely need to do something. The days-long wait at hospital ERs all by itself shouts that some changes have to be made. On the other hand, most consumers are pleased with their coverage, and only two people out of five think this huge grasping plan in the House of Representatives will work.

What really scares me is that we might rush into any solution that simply promises to punish companies in the medical or insurance fields. Every single time government has been used to punish anybody, a boondoggle soon follows. Remember the Alternative Minimum Tax, designed to punish less than 200 rich families?

It would be a lot cheaper to simply construct public hospitals in the big cities, or pay hospitals to build treatment clinics next to their ER’s, as many hospitals are doing on their own already.  I think we can agree that the American public hasn’t seen anything it likes yet.

I can pay $3800 a month just to cover myself. And that insurance under the current system won’t cover any treatment I actually need, so I’m still needing to pay for medical care out of pocket.

Why would I spend $3800 a month on something I will never use?

For our government to consider the realitity of fining American Citizens for not having insurance because they choose to pay their doctor instead of paying a company that will not do them any level of good…is ignorance.

To see my story and my conversation with our President. Please visit simpletownUSA.com

Thank you,

Amy Stewart Hale

PennDragon Studios

Sorry, folks, but I am still for SINGLE PAYER!! DH is from Australia, where they have excellent healthy care.  Insurance companies are crooks and killers - Andrea Yates couldn’t get the insurance company to pay for badly needed (obviously) mental health care.

Single Payer is the way to go.

One problem is the people who say they are pleased with their health care.  Talk to them.  Most of them have only been to their doctors for a flu shot or broken toe or mild fever.  They have never been hospitalized, but when they are, they later get a bill that requires  hiring someone else to explain it.   That’s the big surprise in the mail.  The current system is a disaster.

Last week the two children’s hospitals here were so over crowded with mothers and children wanting flu shots or wanting to know if their children had the flu, those hospitals had to pitch tents.  About the same time, Dr. Oz and his crew arrived in another location.  He was flabbergasted.  Hundreds were lined up as early as 4:00 AM. Most very sick and no where else to turn.

People keep giving a thumbs down to other countries with comprehensive health care  ( Canada, France, Australia, etc), but they don’t have health care being administered in tents either or long lines before daybreak.