Universal Health care

While I said in the beginning I did want more original ideas but Health care is a big issue with every Union member in the country. There have been many different concepts that have been discussed but everyone I have spoken to has said the health care must come of the bargaining tables. We can accomplish this but the government will have to step in because we all know we can not leave it up to the companies. We have seen the UAW version of getting it off the table for a moment with the VEBA (Voluntary Employee Benefit Association). Is that really an answer? Only time will tell but the same sort of idea was tried by Caterpillar in 2004 and it is underfunded of funded at all. It is a step, some might say in the wrong direction, but nonetheless a step to coming up with a solution. Some have a very narrow opinion of Universal Health care by calling it socialized medicine. That term is meant to evoke the old days of communism and the failed policies of the Soviet Union. Keep in mind that not only are communism and socialism entirely different it is a term that shows that someone is out of touch. Every other industrialized nation and the governments in those countries believe health care is a fundamental right for everyone of its' citizens. It could be argued that those nations are even better than the United States economically. Now keep in mind most of those nations are significantly smaller than the United States yet their population is comparable to the United States. The Health care issue is a big issue in the upcoming presidential elections but it is not getting near as much coverage as the Iraq War. Some might say that is more important, I would contend while it is important there are issues here at home so the soldiers in Iraq have something to come home to. That is as important. There are several different ideas out there and the right wing of this country which is made up of insurance companies would prefer that this just go away. They say that the care would be horrible and there would long wait lists for basic care. They use examples of Canada and some European countries. They say that those systems highlight the incompetence of the medical professionals in those countries. I contend that we have the same issues here but in the other countries the issues must be brought to the public because of the oversight the government has. In this country you only hear about the malpractice in our hospitals when suits are filed or you see someone on one of the daytime talk shows.
While there are as many different plans as there are candidates I would suggest looking into each of them to be better educated. I have reviewed what has been published and I can tell you that the Democratic candidates seem to have the better overall plans. The Republican candidates want more of the insurance "consumer driven" that we have been seeing. The republicans seem to think that the answer is to limit the amount one can get for medical malpractice law suits. While we seem to think it was absurd to get $9 million for spilling hot coffee it is a great deal different to have the wrong kidney removed or be mis-diagnosed with an ailment went it is something else that can kill you. There is a long way to go but not that far and with what we have seen in recent contract negotiations with the UAW, CWA and the Steelworkers the companies seem to want to get out of providing health care to those that make their companies profitable. There must be some relief and we had better get it soon.