Recently over at Contrary Brin, Dr. David Brin has been presenting ideas and suggestions to the future Obama Presidency on what paths should be taken to help the country overcome problems that are facing it. Previous suggestions include investigating wartime contracts that were done without bids in Iraq, improved border control (and reforms in the process to enter the country), restoring the Army and National Guard (and having the National Guard return to the purpose it was meant for: defending our nation, not fighting foreign wars), and repair the Civil Service.
Suggestion #14 has just come up, and it was to start down the path of Universal Insurance through incremental steps... with one step that Republicans couldn't deride lest they look like complete asses: insure the children.
Dr. Brin makes a valid argument when commenting on the past failures of universal insurance plans under former first lady Hillary Clinton:
These are "unusual suggestions" and everybody else is already talking about health care. So why would I weigh in? Three words. Start with kids.
The greatest mistake Hillary Clinton made, way back in 1993 -- the calamitous opening she gave the neocons, who then came roaring into power -- was to try fixing the health mess all at once, in a sweeping act of policy-wonkdom. It only gave her foes an opening to ridicule the complexity and centralized, federal hubris of her plan.
Moreover, it ignored some basics of American psychology. Our inherited frontier ethos idolizes a type of individualist self-reliance that -- even when it is mostly illusory -- we often cling to at all costs. One result: an attitude that adults ought to find their own way, sink or swim. Or, at least, enough Americans felt that way to reject any thought of an overall federal system.
Dr. Brin comments on potential problems with creating a universal health care system for everyone, including the biggie: cost. Let's face it. The Shrub has royally screwed up any plans that Obama had, and ensured that Obama cannot fulfill campaign promises immediately. In fact, some promises may have to be scrapped. However, by starting with universal health care for children, there isn't much the Republicans can do without completely killing their own chances of retaining their jobs.
Here are some points Dr. Brin makes concerning the advantages of starting universal healthcare with insurance for all children:
- It can be done swiftly. No complicated insurance company illusions. Simply go to Canadian-style single payer just for those under 18. Perhaps bill all parents on their income tax for a basic, FICA-like premium. We’ll all love it, especially if the cost is lower than the kid-premiums in our present policies.
- Conservatives wouldn’t dare say no. They’ll scream about "slippery slopes." But the American psyche would be on Obama’s side this time. So would a hundred million worried parents.
- It will terrify the insurance companies into cooperating on some next step.
- All kids would get uniform preventive care, at relatively low cost, attacking the crisis at its most basic level. Moreover, there would not be an issue of European style age-based care rationing, since children get maximum care, no matter what. That quagmire can be put off for a while.
Basically, we create a foundation for universal single payer insurance with children. We then hammer out what works and what doesn't work and then expand it to the elderly. Once we have the foundation, the frame, and the roof complete, we then finish the building and insure everyone else. Much like building a house so it stands the test of time, we can build a universal healthcare program through steps that the Republicans will have a hard time blocking. If they refuse universal healthcare for children, then they will gain the ire of parents and grandparents everywhere and lose votes. If they refuse universal healthcare later for elderly, they lose their largest group of voters.
And then, with everyone else with universal health care and with the glitches hammered out... why not insure everyone else? Considering a lot of younger people will have had insurance as children under the program, they'll not see problems with continuing it. And any Republicans who fight it will be replaced by more moderate Republicans or by Independents and Democrats.
As I noted above, Contrary Brin has 14 groups of suggestions for the Obama Presidency, and I strongly recommend people check it out.