The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Of The House Healthcare Bill

A more appropriate solution to our healthcare challenge is establishing a task force rather than enacting a healthcare bill (as passed with a very narrow majority in the US House) that fails to address the primary issue. The primary issue is affordability, either due to low income by an individual or high cost for services and products sold to an individual. When we balance the humanitarian component with the financial component, we are more likely to build a solution that benefits all. Both parties share responsibility for the current mess because it has taken us decades to get here. A task force focused more on solving problems and less on politics will most likely come up with a better solution for America than what can come from our Congress.

If the current bill, as passed by the US House, is enacted:
1. The Good is that more Americans will have greater and easier access to healthcare, which undoubtedly benefits a sizeable percentage of people living in Florida Congressional District 3 (CD-3).
2. The Bad is that there will be losers, which builds resentment with those that lost.
3. The Ugly is that our country will be worse off in the future because the primary issue of affordability (that makes healthcare inaccessible) was never solved and in the end those that should benefit most will most likely suffer once again, which is not good for CD-3 long-term.

Point 1 from above should be easily understood, what might not be are Points 2 and 3. Anytime there is vocal opposition, as we have seen in response to the healthcare legislation, then there are losers, perceived and/or real. Most people in business (which is totally different than politics) know that all parties should win in the formation of a deal.

With the current healthcare reform, the President and the controlling party in Congress are trying to ram down some people’s throats a bill that they distaste. This will build resentment and is bad for our country long-term. We need to work together.

We cannot put the parties on a couch or put them in a room to work out their problems so instead we need to turn over the process of crafting a workable solution to a neutral party comprised of experienced healthcare consultants. The consultants would get paid their normal fee for their work, but would also receive incentives over time for achieving milestones such as reducing the cost of providing healthcare from currently 16% of GDP to 11% of GDP (inline with other industrialized nations) while making healthcare accessible to those that currently do not have it.

This will not be easy and it will take time. I suspect it will be a multiple step process that will take ten (10) years or more. There will be an initial research phase followed by implementation of some items followed by evaluation and additional researched followed by ... and so on until we arrive to a solution that the majority of Americans (not elected officials) initially agreed upon.