When President Obama was at his town hall meeting in New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago he brought up a comparison between the post office, Fed X and UPS. Basically he stated that UPS and FED X were doing fine but it was the post office that was having problems.
I don't find any fault with Obama here except that he might have had a better analogy. But it always kills me when anti health care pundits go on about the post office as being a failure. "Do you want health care to be like the Post Office?" is the usual refrain.
I received this email from my step-daughter today. She is a brilliant young lady who has the ability to see through the muck that surrounds most issues. She also worked for the post office while working on her doctorate at the University of Georgia.
When Obama talked about Post Office vs. UPS/Fed Ex it should have been..
The PO has a mission, it is a service organization that reaches every person no matter where they are in the United States. It allows the geographically isolated to order goods that are not locally available. Before computers and phones, it was the only communication possible and it cost the same for rural and urban Americans and for the poor and the wealthy, the young and the old. The reliability of the PO is the butt of a lot of jokes, but it has been the foundation of mail order businesses, direct marketing and of subscription magazine precisely because it is most often very reliable.
There are other services available besides the basic delivery of a letter or a package, these can possibly be done cheaper or faster through other methods and Fed Ex, UPS, DHL and other courier services all compete in those areas. They are profitable businesses that would not be profitable if they had to deliver letters for a minimal amount of money to every person in the US. (They already refuse many addresses. And UPS is cheap for a package but terrible if you are mailing one letter long distance. For live chicks to your farm, you still need USPS.)
This is analogous to health care - I want everyone to have a certain reliable base to start. Maybe there is premium service on top of that for people who want to pay, but for a basic visit to see a GP or care after an accident or disease, you should not have to use a corporation.
If people would stop trying to run the govt. like a business, we would see that many of the major institutions can function pretty well. USPS should not make a profit. It is a public service with a mission, not a profit goal.
The next time you hear someone compare health care to the Post Office here you have a answer.