Basketball analogies have been really popular lately, like Sarah Palin’s “pass the ball and leave the court” point guard talk. So here’s my analogy for where Obama’s health care plan has ended up after last night’s speech: he drove to the net, lifted off the gleaming hardwood court of ideals, and split the double team of industry interests and Republican fear mongering.  Did the ball go in? It seems to be swirling around the rim, but I’m hopeful.

Health care coverage is a result of the problem, not the problem. The real issue is the structure of the $2 trillion health care industry. This is not a new contention, but has been wrestled with by American Presidents like Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Clinton, and Bush.  As President Obama noted, “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. It has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for health care reform. And ever since, nearly every President and Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, has attempted to meet this challenge in some way. A bill for comprehensive health reform was first introduced by John Dingell Sr. in 1943. Sixty-five years later, his son continues to introduce that same bill at the beginning of each session.” Successful smoke and mirrors by the health care lobby has kept the focus on the people not covered, which keeps tax payer dollars flowing toward increasing coverage, not fixing the problem and saving money.

continue reading

I just crammed $5 into a box with a kid's photo on it. We just found out he died so all my neighbors are chipping in to cover the cost of the funeral. There is no way any of us could give a substantial sum but all together it is a big help to the family.

This morning I drove Karina, my neighbor with a broken arm, to the police station to pick up a police report and file a claim with the city. Last week she accidently rode her bike into a ditch on our street where the city was doing some construction and broke her arm. It was dark. There were no cones up. The ditch was in front of a driveway. The police took a report and confiscated her bike. They are holding it for evidence. She needs surgery for her arm so she collected $2000 from family and friends. She can't work, which means she loses income. She has a bit of insurance but it doesn't cover emergency visits or orthopedic surgery so we went to ask the city to help with the expenses. The supervisor was very nice, but he was sweatin' it. It will take forever to get any money from the contractor's insurance he told me. Every time I turn on the radio or open a blog, it is teeming with debates on health care reform but today the debates seemed silly in light of my neighbor's urgency.

continue reading

Dr. Tattersall was a fine country doctor lifted from a Norman Rockwell painting, complete with white hair and kind eyes. He worked out of a pine-paneled office attached to his home on the only road in our area busy enough to have a painted yellow line running down the middle. For most of my early years, Dr. Tattersall stitched me, vaccinated me, and kept me in one piece.

I suspect many of us have memories of our first doctor. We tend to equate health care with something familiar, like the geeky gecko personifying insurance giant Geico. But the health care business isn’t really Dr. Tattersall or a cute lizard. It’s a $2 trillion dollar industry, one of the largest in the United States. It has the most to lose in the current discussion and a fitting reputation for playing hard and dirty anytime health care reform is proposed.

continue reading

 "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." –-Sarah Palin, in a message posted on Facebook about Obama's health care plan, Aug. 12, 2009

What a quote! Some have responded with an emphatic, “Yeah!” Others with a confused, “Huh?” The Republican Congressman who wrote the bill simply said “nuts,” but that has not ended the discussion. As I read conservative blog sites today, such as Sam Pierce for the Chicago Daily Observer, one of the common themes in support of Palin’s right to dishonor American soldiers while she “makes stuff up” was that there is nothing wrong with “anticipating the implications of legislation.” Hmmm.

continue reading

Like many of you, I’ve been struggling to keep up with all the noise about health care reform. As a professor in an MBA program, I actually enjoy the numbers side of it. The problem is, both sides dice the numbers like a Chinese chef with Gin-sue knives .

I recently came across Chuck Colson’s piece on health care reform. While I certainly don't agree with him on everything, he hits some key issues, including the role of the government in health care. He also goes deeper, reflecting on some of the moral issues that cast a shadow on any government led reforms.

Take a look, might give a little clarity:   Chuck Colson on " We need health care reform."

continue reading