The ultimate fix for the United States health care problem

One of the most important facts concerning the current health care debate is also one of the least discussed.  We hear about the World Health Organization’s 2000 report listing the United States as number 37 in health care, behind  the United Kingdom, France and Canada.  We hear about criticism of a public option and fights between politicians.  The most important fact has nothing to do with those things, and that fact is:

The opinion about quality of health care in the United States differs depending on how one experiences the system.

I’ll get to why that’s important in a minute but for now a quick explanation by use of examples.  One, a person who has never had a serious illness is much more likely to be happy with the current system because they haven’t really had to use it.  Two, some people get sick and are taken care of by their insurance companies just fine.  Three, some people get sick and are dumped by their insurance companies.  Some people never use their insurance, some go bankrupt because their insurance wouldn’t cover a serious illness.

Why is that fact important?  Because it’s hard to convince someone of something he’s never seen.

If you don’t support health care reform and believe our system is the best in the world, prove it to those who don’t think like you do.  Find ten or twenty people in different areas with a recent cancer diagnosis and follow them through treatment.  Show your doubters how none of those people are dropped by their plans, get all of the treatment they need, and are cured without losing their livelihoods and savings.  Simple.  When you can show how great the system is, in a major way, you’ll have to spend less effort debating.

If you do support health care reform and believe our system needs help, prove it to those who don’t think like you do.  Find ten or twenty people in different areas with a recent cancer diagnosis and follow them through treatment.  Show your doubters how many of those people are dropped from their health plans, get unnecessary tests or not enough tests or delayed tests, and lose most of their savings or are forced into bancruptcy by their illnesses.  Simple.  When you show how lacking the system is, you’ll have to spend less effort debating.

The problem with doing that of course is that it doesn’t matter.  Why?  Because even if you proved your point beyond any reasonable doubt, your opponents wouldn’t care.  Too many politicians are beholden to health care companies and insurance conglomerates.  Too many politicians just want more power.  And way too many politicians just want their way, the people be damned no matter what.  So I’ve figured out the ultimate fix to our health care debate.

Break up the United States.  Make our country fifty independent territories.  Let’s make states’ rights a serious issue by making each state its own country.   This should make Republicans happy, because then each new country would be dependent on itself and could decide how to run health care without anyone else’s intervention.  It should make Democrats happy because they wouldn’t have to deal with Republicans anymore.  In fact, let’s make it even better.

Determine how many Republicans there are and how many Democrats there are and split the new countries between them, grouping them together so they feel more comfortable.  We’ll use random draw to determine which group gets the East and which gets the West.  In the middle will be the independent block where we’ll move the most respected universities and laboratories.  Each area will get to choose whether or not to allow Wal-Mart into their borders.  Each side will choose their own gun laws, health care services, education standards and food selections.  Of course they’ll all still have access to porn because if those politicos have proven anything in the last decade or five, it’s that they love sex – the more hypocritical, the better.

But that’s not the complete plan.  You have to weed out the morons and crazy people, because they tend to harm the process everywhere they go.  We start with the most obviously stupid people, like those who don’t know Hawaii is a state or think any health care bill considered so far actually had the words “death panel” in it.  Move them into their own area in the far north and see if they’re able to figure out how to make a winter coat in time.

And let’s block off a section in the south, or maybe the desert, and fence it in.  That’s where murderers, rapists, pedophiles, political criminals, con artists and their ilk will go.  Once a year throw in some meat and clubs.  Depending on your thought process, the results will either prove there’s a Satanic influence in the world or prove the existence of evolution.

If there’s any fighting between the sections, we can solve that by using several very large bombs to create ten mile splits across the country to better separate them.

That’s the best way to make it possible for everyone to ignore the existence of everyone else.  Of course we could just inject some truth into the health care debate and come up with a plan that could be proven to work for the good of us all.

Well, crap.  I forgot myself again.  The good of the people isn’t important when there’s money to be made.  Silly me.