If you really want to get comprehensive health care reform in this country, force all members of Congress to shop for individual coverage for themselves and their families. You'd see legislation in no time!
This is not an original idea.
In fact, there was a TV show I liked a few years ago, called "Mr. Sterling Goes To Washington," in which a utopian appointed to serve out the term of a deceased California senator shakes up Capitol Hill.
One terrific episode focused on Sen. Sterling's efforts to reform the tax code. The senator encounters so many obstacles in even getting his bill on the schedule for debate that he introduces an amendment to a key budget bill mandating that all members of Congress must fill out their own tax returns without any professional help.
Before you know it, Sen. Sterling's tax reform proposal was put on the committee schedule for debate!
While I know TV simplifies everything, I think this would be a great reality check for everyone in Congress–particularly for those who insist the private market is performing an outstanding job covering anyone (who can get and afford coverage, that is), and that no public option is needed.
I have a feeling when Congress sees the cost involved and the hoops one must jump through to get coverage on the individual market, and after some see they or their family members excluded for preexisting conditions or some other genetic marker, there will be a stampede in the halls to vote on a comprehensive reform bill.
Of course, this is probably a pipe dream, as it is unlikely members of Congress would vote to terminate their own health insurance program. But it might be just as effective if one outspoken member had the guts to introduce such a bill and talk about it on all the cable news shows to put the heat on Congress to stop shirking their responsibility and get a bipartisan bill done!
What do you folks think?
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