What do these three things have in common? They all serve what the preamble to the U.S. Constitution calls "the general Welfare" of our nation.
We the people recognize the logic of using tax dollars to build and maintain roads and streets and interstate highways. Even if some individuals would rather continue driving back roads, the interstate system moves commerce efficiently and keeps our manufacturing and retail sectors functioning.
We also see the benefits of government participation in the design and construction of the power grid. While individual companies generate the electricity, we all accept the wisdom of regulating standards for delivering that energy to our homes and businesses safely and consistently.
We long ago stopped asking why we should allow the government rather than the private sector to provide these and similar services. The answer is simple: Some things are too important to be managed solely for profit, too vital to our society as a whole to be left completely to individuals to provide.
Which brings us to health care. For too long, our national health insurance discussion has been focused entirely on the "why," as writer T.R. Reid pointed out in Fort Collins last month. Now, as the mid-20th-century model of employer-provided, profit-driven health coverage crumbles around us, we as a nation seem finally ready to move beyond "why" to "how."
How do we ensure that all Americans have access to not only the most advanced medical technology on earth but also basic health maintenance services? How do we remove the benefits handcuffs from employers and workers alike? When small businesses can't afford to hire the people they need and entrepreneurs defer their startup dreams because of the cost of insurance, why ask why? It's time to learn from the rest of the industrialized world how to get our health-care priorities - and incentives - in the right place.
While we usually share the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance's positions, we prefer not to sit on the sidelines waiting for federal health-care reform.
Although last week's White House health-care summit was encouraging, we also support House Bill 1273, carried by Fort Collins Rep. John Kefalas, which would create an authority to explore creating a publicly funded, privately delivered single-payer coverage system for Colorado. We're usually not much for new study commissions, but anything that advances the discussion of universal coverage is long overdue.
Rev Koziol in Littleton, Colo. at [4/14/2009 1:17:06 PM]
I am very grateful to Rep. John Kefalas of Fort Collins for his stellar work on this issue. It astounds me that people can spend money on football tickets, skiing, and other expensive, self-indulgent pass times. Granted these are things that bring many tourists here, including gamblers, but can you honestly say that people can't pay a couple of bucks every pay check -- like an RTD tax to help those who cannot afford to buy private insurance? The government decided that we ALL had to have DTV and Colorado is not waiting for the federal deadline because Comcast needs to get more customers for 19.95 per month. People make allowances for that change in how we receive TV programming. Many have cable while some have to "buy" a decoder box. Is it really horrid for people to have to look after one another? Just because one is not affluent, does not make one lazy or good for nothing. When the word "socialized" is verbalized, so many become extremely fearful, rejecting any prospect to change privatized "health care." I remember when doctors were allowed to be doctors and work with a patient's clinical presentation and then order testing IF it needed to be so, which ALSO saves money. Where have all the doctors gone? That should be the next question. Kudos, and many thanks to Rep. Kefalas!
Paul Archer in Denver at [3/17/2009 3:58:59 PM]
It is interesting to see the constant use of "mixed metaphors" when talking about single-payer health-care reform. We don't have a public/private power system in the U.S. -- we have a private/private system with public regulation, thus providing the best intersection of continuous service and good value for consumers. Many health-care reform proponents recognize that much of the reform talk we hear -- for example President Obama's $634 billion downpayment on health-care reform -- is nothing more than covering the uninsured with the currently insured paying the tab. A single-payer system, which would frustrate and harm, many of the things that are good in our health-care system today, is not the only method to cover everyone, reduce cost, and improve quality. We absolutely understand the business frustration with the cost and complication of our current employer-based health-care system, but we would expect a business journal to recognize the pitfalls, the lack of competitiveness and the bureaucratic creep that a single-payer system represents, compared with health care reform which includes thoughtful and beneficial free market reform.
Tom Linnell in Fort Collins, Colo. at [3/17/2009 1:45:08 PM]
An editorial in today's (March 17, 2009) Coloradoan by Bryan Blakeley teaches us to think of HR 676 (Medicare for All) as "socialized insurance" rather than "socialized medicine." I like this. Socialized insurance would mean simply to cover everyone. Then, with profit out of the way, let the competition begin -- between doctors and hospitals, to deliver the highest quality health care possible. Thank you to the NCBR for stepping out front on this issue. And, go John Kefalas! If the Feds can't or won't do it, Colorado can show them the way!
Deanne Lembitz, M.D. in Fort Collins, Colo. at [3/17/2009 10:39:30 AM]
Excellent points. Small business once needed better roads and utilities to advance. Now they need better health care access to survive. I am a family physician and small business owner. From both perspectives the system of delivering health care is about to topple. Let's not wait for another Wall Street to surprise us. Kefalas' bill allows us to begin proactive investigation, AND it costs the taxpayer nothing. Let's support the bill so that small businesses in Colorado can compete.
Cory Carroll in Fort Collins, Colo. at [3/16/2009 10:14:18 PM]
Excellent discussion. We have highways to move us, clean water to nourish us, police, fire fighters and military to protect us -- all "socialized" -- yet no universal health care. We need to take care of our own. It is time to understand that the only efficient system to deliver quality health care to America is a centralized system similar to all the other "social" services. Single payer (HR 676 at the federal level) is the start, and the result is unbridling business with health care and allow Americans to lead the world.
Kevin Jones in Fort Collins, Colo. at [3/16/2009 8:07:19 PM]
My opinion is that this is very well stated and I appreciate a business publication such as yours taking this position. It shows leadership. Thanks.
