Two polarities:
- Cover all citizens with health insurance much like the mandate to carry car insurance.
- Allow the health insurance coverage issue to be resolved in the private marketplace much like buying a loaf of bread.
Instead of dealing with these issues, Congress took an ill-advised step as the new year dawned. It sent an ObamaCare repeal bill to the president’s desk.
Guess what he’ll do. Veto it. [And, he did, even as he contended that ObamaCare is a signal achievement of his terms as president, one he will use to keynote his final State of the Union address to Congress. Plus, his veto will be veto-proof in Congress where they are not the votes to override it.]
Would have better the a vote to repeal ObamaCare if the bright minds in Congress – yes, there are some – would have sat down to carve out a reasonable alternative. Call both sides of the aisle to a round table and ask this question: What would be better than what currently exists? Then, define it and send a bill to the floors of both the House and the Senate and on to the president’s desk.
Obama might veto that, too, but then we’d know for sure what we suspect now – that the president doesn’t want middle ground solutions to pressing national problems. He wants another pelt on the wall of what he considers his legacy.
All of this might have been difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in a presidential election year. Still, worth the effort.
A both-sides-of-the-aisle solution is what should have happened the first time around instead of the Democrats-only decision on the original ObamaCare.
If Congress would have taken this kind of step, it also would have helped all candidates on the presidential campaign trail. For now, every GOP presidential candidate’s health-policy platform begins with repealing the law, but for most, that’s also where it ends.
Questions about how they would pull back a law that’s largely been implemented — and what, if anything, they would enact in its place — have gone largely unanswered in a primary contest dominated by national-security issues and the uncertain state of the economy.
A middle-ground solution on health care should contain this mandate – yes, a government mandate: Everyone should be required to buy health insurance coverage.
Think of this parallel – car insurance. To drive a car, you are required to buy insurance. If you don’t and get in an accident, you are held to account. The same should be true of health insurance. If you buy it, good. If you don’t, you are held to account.
One virtue of such a mandate would be that those with insurance wouldn’t have to pay for those without it. That happens now, thus increasing the cost of insurance for anyone who buys it.
Those around the negotiating table would have to grapple with the tough question of how to cover low-income citizens who don’t have enough money to buy health insurance. That would probably mean what it means today — increases in the ranks of those covered by the government’s Medicaid program, and incentives such as tax credits to prod purchasing.
This is not a definitive prescription for what hails health care today. But it is a call for a bi-partisan approach to solving the problem, which, itself, would be a breath of fresh air in the halls of Congress and in the Oval Office.
Perspective from the 19th Hole 
Why must the private market be a priority in healthcare? Let’s find a health insurance plan that does these three things: Improve national health; reduce costs, and cover everyone in America. Start there. Examples of national insurance plans — public and private, and in combination — are available all over the world, and the most expensive one costs almost half the gross domestic product of our in the US. Bentley Gilbert, Roseburg
Well, Bentley, my view is that a private solution to health care or any other formidable public policy issue should reside mostly in the private sector, though, also, there must be cooperative between the public and private sectors…cooperation that is most often lacking today. Government can hardly afford its current obligations much less take on health care as as government mandate. Where would the money come from to fund it? More taxes on corporation, according to public employee unions, who will be heading to the ballot with another job killing proposal. The best solution to pressing public policy problems is to boost the economy, so more people (and businesses) pay more in taxes.