Note: As you read this, you may be tempted to call me partisan or left-leaning. However I respectfully ask you to withhold the urge to slot me into a simple political perspective as you read through this. This analysis is my best attempt to look at the health care reform bill on the merits and demerits, with my personal bias towards proactive problem solving, as well as my bias for effective leadership.
While certainly full of problems that come with any large initiative or legislation that enables substantial change, the expansion of access to health care for Americans will, indeed, spread freedom and security throughout the land. Here's how:
* By outlawing pre-existing conditions, Americans will have more freedom to leave insurers, change insurers, and select insurers.
* Americans will be free to tell the truth about their pre-existing conditions (instead of lying about not having any so that they can have insurance).
* Americans will be free to leave or change employers, and choose from a larger swath of employers (esp. small businesses). Thanks to serious tax-payer subsidies, more people will be able to afford insurance without needing it to be an employer-based benefit.
* Just like our military uses our tax dollars to ensure our security and safety, so will this legislation. The military is all about keeping us alive and free. So will this health insurance reform legislation. As a country, we've time and time again decided that our tax dollars are well worth our safety, security and freedom. This is no exception.
* Americans just got a new "benefit" just for being an American. Just like any good employer provides good benefits to its workforce, a good country delivers good benefits for its citizenry.
Click here to read about some of the problems -- and ultimate conclusion -- of my assessment of the health insurance reform bill.