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Republicans, Give Me Something to Work With
I’ve been having some breakthrough conversations about politics and government with a Millenial who works with me. He’s an intelligent lad, and well-informed, though his limited life experience hasn’t chipped away at his idealism yet.
He has a number of conservative views and opinions — net neutrality, big data, TSA, etc. — although he doesn’t necessarily recognize them as such. But hey, it’s a start.
However, when it comes to healthcare he’s “all in” on ObamaCare, mostly because of pre-existing conditions and coverage until age 26.
Here’s my frustration: he’s willing to listen, and I’ve shared many of the faults of ObamaCare as well as ways that health reform could be done more effectively and less intrusively. What’s lacking, however, is having a tangible, accepted Republican approach to demonstrate what a good healthcare program looks like.
Sure, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, Tom Price, and a few others have put forth some ideas, but they seem to have come and gone. Without a philosophy, a plan, and some concrete actions, it’s just my hypotheticals against his experiences with ObamaCare, which haven’t been negative to-date.
Republicans, please tell me what you stand for on healthcare and what you want to accomplish so I can pass it along to my Millenial friend.
He’s listening… for now.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.
Published in General
Yes. If only those were the voters we had.
Unfortunately, freeing the market (which is really the meat of “our side’s” aim) is *not* (rhetorically) offering solutions. To so many, when we talk about the power of the free market, we sound like the Underpants Gnomes:
1) Free market
2) ??
3) Happy days!
I had to go through an entire quarter (think trimester) course on Comparative Economics (taught in the early 1980’s by an immigrant from Poland) to truly absorb the message. And, because the very nature of free market solutions mean that we *don’t know,* right now, precisely what the result will look like … well, it sounds like we’re taking it all on faith.
Which we are, in a way, we have faith in the additive affect of all those individual choices.
Argh! “Effect,” not “affect.” (no editing for me, today, in Rico 2.0, sigh).
And it would only be available at two garages, one in Albany and the other in Tucson.
That’s true. The other reason is that the socialized medicine world largely free rides on the innovation developed and paid for in the U.S.
That’s what people say – and I think it may be true for pharmaceuticals, but I don’t believe it’s true of actual medical procedures. To some extent that may be because the price tag is not actually what is usually charged/paid for, but it seems like a problem to some degree.
I was thinking primarily of pharmaceuticals although my guess would be that the goofy US system is at least a little more flexible than at least single payer systems in permitting innovation in other areas as well. Maybe not. There may be other countervailing factors.
“Repeal Obamacare from the inside out.” Brilliant. I am going to have to steal that line.