Republicans: Get out of the way of progress

Letters
North County Times
November 13, 2009

I am a retired lifelong conservative Republican, planning to change my registration to Independent. Why? Because of obstructionist practices of the Republicans, such as Saturday night’s vote in the House. Only one Republican voted for the House Bill 3962. All the rest played strict partisan politics.

We need change in our broken health insurance system in America. The best change would be a switch to single-payer — but in the interest of making progress, I implore my Representative, Darrell Issa, to stop playing partisan politics.

I also implore my senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, to vote in favor of health care reform in the upcoming Senate votes. Again, single-payer is the best way to go, but any change from the present system will be welcome.

We have the most expensive health care system in the world, but our health outcomes are well down among developed nations. Why do our politicians not respond to their constituents? Are some in the pockets of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies? Do the wishes of majorities not count with them?

Edgar Grube
Oceanside

http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/letters/article_a335d2e8-dfa1-54bb-8b48-612690807f79.html

And…

Estonia: health care reforms

European Federation of Public Service Unions

In Estonia public health insurance is a social insurance and relies on the principle of solidarity. The purposes of health insurance are to: cover the costs of health services provided to insured people, prevent and cure diseases, finance the purchase of medicinal products and medicinal technical aids and provide benefits for temporary incapacity for work and other benefits. The health insurance is organised by the Health Insurance Fund (EHIF), which covers the costs of health services required by people in the event of illness, regardless of the amount of social tax paid in respect of the person concerned. The Fund uses the social tax paid for the working population also to cover the cost of health services provided to people who have no income from work activities. Employers are required to pay social tax for all people employed, at a rate of 33% of the taxable amount, of which 20% is allocated for pension insurance and 13% for health insurance.

http://www.epsu.org/a/2242

How about that! A conservative Republican who has decided that single payer is the best way to go. Wow!

So how did he arrive at his conclusions on single payer?

I must confess that Ed Grube is a close personal friend of mine. When we met many years ago, he described himself as being to the right of Genghis Khan, whereas I was to the left of Norman Thomas. We had no pretenses that we could change each others ideology, so we dispensed with the useless rhetoric.

We frequently escaped with our mates on camping trips in spectacular locations, free of the cares of our very busy lives back home. During our hikes the ladies would enjoy the things that really count – the flowers, the vistas, the fauna, etc. – whereas Ed and I would discuss government, free markets, regulation, and other topics that were inappropriate when you are in paradise. But men… you know.

I think that both of us were surprised on how much we agreed, particularly on regulation. We could see the terrible injustices resulting from the move to deregulation, especially since 1980. Recent events have only further solidified our views.

Being the compulsive that I am, I couldn’t leave out the topic of health care reform. Since we had dispensed with silly ideology disputes, we could discuss reform quite rationally. He agreed that the status quo was totally unacceptable, and that there are some very legitimate arguments that support public financing of a private health care delivery system. I agreed that we could have health care justice without the requirement of a government owned health care delivery system.

With the downturn in the economy, Ed decided to shut down his business and retire – a wise decision, except that he was too young to qualify for Medicare. I don’t need to go into this part of the story except to say that he certainly recognized the injustices of overzealous medical underwriting and age discrimination. More than ever he could see the advantages of a single payer system.

But there is more to this story. I am not going to pretend that my smooth talking converted a conservative Republican into a single payer supporter, although I may have given him some of the substrate to frame his thoughts. No, it was much more than that.

Ed, who is Estonian by heritage, met the love of his life – Juta – while visiting the land of his roots. After marriage, they lived together in Estonia long enough to be able to recognize the sharp contrasts on moving back to California. Amongst the most notable differences are our health care systems.

“In Estonia public health insurance is a social insurance and relies on the principle of solidarity.” Juta simply takes that as a given. And now, so does Ed – or at least he passionately believes that it should be a given.