by J. Greg Parks
The health care debate has ended. It has been replaced with screaming theater that neither entertains nor brings comfort to the audience. The sides for and against, have their heels so firmly dug in that you can barely see their heads over outstretched arms. The basic problem is that our elected officials have no idea what is in H.R. 3200, better known as “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.”
A “one size fits all” government program will not work. The President as much as admitted it when he gave kudos to UPS and Federal Express, while telling us that it was the Post Office that was always in trouble. While health care reform is needed, it should be done by the states. Each state knows the problems of health care in their own backyard. Who better than the state government to craft legislation to place controls on the cost of health insurance, introduce tort reform and force the Congress to enact legislation similar to The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 making insurance competitive and portable among the fifty states.
It is easier to hold our state representatives accountable for their actions, or inaction, each election cycle, than to remove those that have sold their souls to the national party machines. Granted that current events in Harrisburg may make the idea of accomplishing anything at the state level difficult, however we can remove the current group in 2010. Good government is as much the responsibility of the citizen as the legislator.