Health Care Muse

Just thinking on health care reform...

I believe it is going to result the same way that compulsory education has. The public option may very well result with the poorest people on those rosters. Whereas the relatively affluent will elect to pay for premium insurance plans with better features, just as more affluent people now spend money to send their children to better schools. Some people will work harder or save more, so that their families are not relegated to neighborhood clinics where people might experience substandard care from less than professional providers. The market will continue to reward private insurance companies who pay for the the best service providers and give superior customer service.

People will continue making decisions about where to live based on the quality of schools, but also on the quality of the public health infrastructure. Ten years after universal health care is in place, this disparity will become evident. Nevertheless, reforming the reform will prove difficult because public health care employees will have unionized, as public school teacher did, and the electorate will have become use to another tax on their incomes or property.

Bring US Home!

It is time for President Obama to show us the type of deliberate change that we need on the war issue. I am hopeful that the president can muster the will to declare the original mission in Afghanistan "accomplished," and to begin withdrawing all but a strategical force, adequate for defending itself and maintaining enough order for rebuilding around Kabul.

Who is to say that we have not dealt the Afghan leadership -- the one that harbored Osama bin Laden -- a decisive blow? Were we not able to mete out retribution for September 11, punish the Taliban government, and signal to the world that crossing swords with the United States could mean their ruin? The answer is yes. Now, Mr. President, leave in place a well resourced strike force, a massive intelligence network, and bring our troops home from Dick Cheney's war. Please.