How to Make Universal Health Care an Overwhelming Success

If ever a national program deserves to succeed, it is Universal Health Care. It is a great goal, worthy of a great nation. Americans, and, indeed, all people deserve Universal Health Care. Even the weakest and poorest among us deserve health care with respect, caring and quality.

A catastrophic health crisis should not drive anyone into bankruptcy. There should never be a choice between a loved one and a mortgage. As a nation we can afford Universal Health Care and now is the time we should gather our brightest and our very best and design a plan that protects and shelters our people and strengthens our nation.

We should gather our best and brightest, our experts in each area of wellness, care and management and we should craft a program that combines our greatest strengths with our capacity for caring for our poor and those currently uninsured, for what ever reason.

We should bring our very best and brightest to the table. But we're not. Instead we've gathered a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats and partisan hacks who have virtually no real world experience and no health care expertise. What they do know how to do is raise money for their re-election. They do know how to demonize their opposition. The do know how to pad the wallets of their patrons. They do know how to fill reams and reams of paper with bizarre and convoluted legal jargon.

The one thing that is emerging from their efforts at Universal Health Care is the virtual destruction of our current system which works so very well for the vast majority of Americans to be replaced by a bureaucratic nightmare of forms, quotas, rationing and, well, more bureaucracy.

Both the House and Senate have now got drafts of programs that exceed 2,000 pages each! And the Congressional Budget Office has reviewed these plan and certified that they will not work. Taxes and health care costs will skyrocket to the point they will bankrupt our nation in just a few short years.

What doctors and health care experts are pointing out is that these few short years will be miserable. Delays in service. Loss of your personal physician. And doctors who will be unable to use their best judgement in treating your ailments.

How did this happen? Nancy Pelosi, the most incompetent, partisan hack to ever fill the seat of Speaker of the House, has DEMANDED that only far left liberal members even be allowed to work on the House proposal. Absolutely NO REPUBLICANS and no MODERATE DEMOCRATS were allowed to raise a single objection and add a single idea to the bloated give-away to party loyalists. As a result, great ideas that would have reduced red tape, lowered costs, increased competition and improve care were left out.

Harry Reid has done essentially the same thing in the Senate, although rules there will eventually demand more thoughtful input.

But, for reasons no one will ever understand, President Obama is attempting to rush the program through the Congress without review, input, ideas, study or analysis. It is impossible for anyone to guess why. It is, most assuredly, a betrayal of the American people.

Can this be fixed. Of course it can. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE has signed on to the goal of Universal Health Care! Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, virtually all Republicans and all Democrats. The team is here and ready to work.

It can be fixed. But it won't be unless Barack Obama wakes up and realizes that the Democratically controlled Congress is the problem. It won't be fixed unless Obama uses this recess to gather a true bi-partisan team at the White House and works them day and night to really compromise and to build the best possible plan. Republicans, Blue Dog Democrats and Liberals, all at one table, all with their eyes focused on the ball.

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has submitted an excellent compromise plan. It's a hell of a good place to start. You can all read it here: How to Make Health-Care Reform Bipartisan