HEALTH CARE: ANGELS AND DEMONS

The current multifaceted and very visible debate surrounding the proposed health care overhaul legislation provides us an excellent opportunity to further explore our theme of PRINCIPLED COMMUNICATION. If a fiscally responsible, market-based solution that reduces cost and reduces the number of uninsured American citizens is to prevail, then we shall all have to focus more upon what the sensible individuals (and their constituencies/organizations) on each size of the issue AGREE upon. We must all appeal to our better angels and defy the demons of doom if that solution is to emerge. Put aside petty partisanship and focus upon the basics.

1) America is a Pro-Life nation. The Declaration of Independence spoke of the "the separate and equal station to which...nature's God entitle them...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life..." We would be hard-pressed to find a Christian, Jew, or Muslim who would condemn a stranger to death simply over economics. Thus, to be a pro-life nation, we must look beyond economics and recognize that access to health care is congruent with God's command many times over in the Bible to look out for the poor, the widows and the orphans.

2) Access to Health Care reduces costs associated with absenteeism. Some 85% of American citizens participate in a health care plan. Preventative care detects warning signs of early-stage disease, allowing for the timely application of lifestyle changes, medications, and medical technology to prolong life. Most employers provide access to health care plans because it is humane, but also because healthy employees show up for work more often, have higher morale, and manufacture/sell more products/services. Contrast that forethought with the obscene costs thrust upon private citizens and companies when uninsured individuals seek last-minute chronic care at America's emergency rooms. Like our grandmothers told us, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

3) America is a free-market nation whose business ingenuity can overcome any challenge. Malicious slander and venomous lies won't attract stakeholders to the table. Whether applied to putting a man on the moon in less than a decade or curing cancer, our free market economy can often provide timely solutions to critical problems when dialogue is dignified. While government can certainly be a partner with private industry through appropriate legislation (i.e. the Interstate Highway System, NASA, Medicare, the Armed Forces, university research & development), government shouldn't be running the businesses themselves.

Thus,

• Let's first acknowledge that all of God's children should have the opportunity to access health care as needed.
• Then let us stop beating up on doctors, insurance companies, and employers, and instead invite all stakeholders to brainstorm and recognize their many points of agreement.
• Finally, let the stakeholders, both public and private, work together without the venomous rhetoric to develop a market-based system that will allow (but not mandate) all American citizens to access affordable health care and the doctors/hospitals of their own choosing in a fiscally responsible manner.

Sometimes it's seems easier to digress into the demons and doomsayers, but our nation has always risen above (think Berlin Wall coming down) when all sides on an issue allowed their better angels to prevail. No one loses if the solution is God-inspired, pro-life, and market-based.

TODAY'S QUESTION: How do we reframe the dialogue surrounding a divisive issue to (1) increase consensus, and (2) to reduce non-essential cacophony, so that a majority will embrace our sensible solution?