A word on health care

I received this response today to one of my columns in The Progressive Populist (maybe this one). Thought I’d pass it along:

Mr. Kalet:

I saw your column in The Progressive Populist.

We voters know what to do to get government to work. It seems obvious that we do it at our jobs every day. If I have missed something, will you tell me what it is?

There are at least 4 things we do to make a business work: hire employees, decide what we want them to do, tell them, and hold them accountable. The same requirements apply to almost any enterprise. But we voters aren’t deciding what we want our employees in Congress to do, telling them, and holding them accountable. We know 47 million need health insurance. We know Medicare works. But HR676 Medicare-type universal health insurance legislation is stuck in the House. Is this because we voter/taxpayers fail to instruct and motivate our lawmaker employees to serve their employers? Is this why business works better than government?

In the enterprise of government, we employers need to function as effectively as we do in a business or a professional association. A well-funded organization will enable voters to have televised discussion of a proposed law, such as HR676, followed by telephone polling to see if two-thirds of us want our employees to enact it. If so, two-thirds of registered voters can send millions of coordinated E-mails to lobby them to do it. Then we can hold them accountable at election time. We voters need to decide we will accept all 4 of our obligations as employers of the lawmakers in our government, which is our most important enterprise.

Details of the steps needed to effectively supervise our employees are on the Web at thirdmillenniumagenda.us, August 28, paragraph 4. f. “We can implement in government the functions essential to business,” about 500 words.

Most voters would probably jump at the chance to lobby their lawmakers directly if they could join millions of others to press for one specific policy change at a time, such as HR676. Am I wrong? Is there any reason why registered voters couldn’t, shouldn’t, or wouldn’t do this?

Best Regards,

Stephen Claflin

Food for thought.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet