The country has been turned upside down by the healthcare debate.
Does anyone understand why this has to go through so fast? What’s the urgency? Why is any of it a good idea? Who has any proof?
Of course, one might suspect that this isn’t about healthcare as much as it’s a power grab. Probably doesn’t take great political insight to figure that one out. Get it done before the 2010 election, right? Kind of an endgame…
So, what’s this “YOU First Act” anyway?
A pretty simple idea, really.
If Congress truly believes that the nation’s healthcare system needs major changes and that billions of dollars (probably trillions) of legislation must be enacted… then shouldn’t they at least test their theories first?
Really now, who would get on an airliner that hadn’t been prototyped, tested, retested and then certified? Or who would feel safe taking a drug that didn’t go through clinical trials?
Same thing here. If there is going to be massive legislated change in healthcare, shouldn’t it be more than theoretical? Shouldn’t we have some proof that Capitol Hill’s ideas can work? The billions of debt caused by Medicare, Amtrak and the Postal Service aren’t exactly a great track record.
This sea change Congress is concocting needs some sort of pilot testing and it needs a sample group to test upon…
And guess what? Congress already has a significant sample group of about 10 million people already in it’s total control!
Federal employees belong to the country’s largest employer-based health benefits program [FEHBP]. Congress has authority over that group. It also has authority over the health benefits for employees of the District of Columbia. And Congress also has authority over the citizens of the District of Columbia. And members of Congress are also covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
Why should the whole country be the guinea pig for Congress’s medical experiment? Why doesn’t Congress and the federal government experiment on themselves? 10 million is a nicely sized group to use as a pilot.
So, we say, YOU First!
We’ve taken a stab at writing a draft of a bill we call the Healthcare Reform Testing and Feasibility Act.
Maybe something like this could give cooler heads in Congress the opportunity to slow things down and truly consider testing some of these concepts first.
You can read our simple draft of the YOU First Act here.
