Readers write
Find a reasonable health-care bill
Below is my recollection of a conversation between the hosts and guests of the “Morning Joe” show on May 9. It caught my attention especially because it seems to be in sync with my wife’s, Carol’s, letter last week titled “The center needs to hold.” Sen. Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, was the main guest of the segment. In the following dialog “Morning Joe” stands for one of the hosts or a secondary guest interacting with Sen. Cassidy. I paraphrase part of the dialog below:
Sen Cassidy: All pre-existing conditions need to be covered.
Morning Joe: How do you do that?
Cassidy: You put those folks into a large pool with lots of healthy people. Morning Joe: How do you get the large pool to cover the cost?
Cassidy: Simple! Each state automatically puts every citizen into the state insurance poll and provide subsidies making it affordable for everyone.
Morning Joe: Isn’t this a mandated system? Cassidy: No, you give everyone the right to opt out. They would be foolish to opt out.
As my wife has been encouraging us all to support governance from the middle, I immediately Googled “Cassidy-Collins” bill (the proposed senate bill has two other authors but is referred to by these two senators’ names. Sen. Cassidy from Louisiana is partnering with Sen. Collins from Maine on a comprehensive health-care bill. So far, the leadership in the Senate has ignored their bill, but it has been catching fire in the news cycle.
We need to be vigilant that it fixes the problems found in the ACA but maintains the spirit and wealth of provision in the ACA that strengthens our nation and people. We need to examine what we think is in the best interest of our nation. Each of us needs to study our assumptions and sort out what data can support those assumptions. So far, the bill will provide for Medicaid expansion protecting the old and the poor.
We must understand actuarially and statistically how a large pool of people, both healthy and ill, will be able to cover pre-existing conditions. As someone on “Morning Joe” said, “It is nice to hear from someone who understands how insurance works.” I urge everyone to read the Cassidy-Collins proposal.
I also urge you to keep an open mind and understand what in the ACA hurts some people and be willing to compromise and push for a solution that least hurts everyone; a solution that while it may cost those of us who are well off some little bit is in large measure fair and equitable to everyone.
Aim for a solution the maintains our Christian values that asks us to protect our most vulnerable and allows us to be proud of a nation that takes care of its people.
The Cassidy-Collins bill seems to meet a lot of what I desire in national health care bill and a lot of what I have been hearing from both sides in the political debates. We need to study this bill and ask good questions. Then let’s encourage our representatives to govern from the middle.
Jesse Parete, Celina