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

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Runner’s diary, Thursday ( so, I’m late)

Back on the treadmill Thursday morning — three miles running, total of four with the walking. Legs feel good. Kept the pace light — about 28:30 or so for the run.

Next stop: Run with the Vikings 5K at SBHS.

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

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

The best they can — but can’t we do it better?

If you read between the lines in this story that we did on local EMT reaction to a state report on emergency services, you should come away with the impression that the state is on the money in its criticism of the current setup.

The state study

cited, in particular, financial problems, a shortfall in volunteers, a lack of comprehensive EMS legislation, and sub-par Advanced Life Support services as the main causes for concern. It also listed 55 recommendations to revamp the EMS system, which includes 1,500 certified paramedics and 22,000 emergency medical technicians statewide.

Local volunteers acknowledged all the problems that the state cited, but then lapsed into defensive mode:

local squad leaders said the recommendation to save expenses by merging smaller operations would not improve services in the area, because they already work closely together. They also questioned the feasibility of paying the salaries and benefits of additional career EMTs, another move urged by the report.

According to Mr. Wolfe, “You’re not gonna gain a lot in the way we operate. We already have the mechanisms to draw on the pool of available volunteers.”

As for more career EMTs, he said, “Someone’s gotta pay for that, and it’s already a burden to pay for police and fire.”

Al Low-Beer said it would be impossible for the Kendall Park squad to include career EMTs.

”The study forgot to mention one thing, and that’s how to pay for everything,” he said. “You couldn’t run the squad without a major increase in taxes.”

He also criticized the study’s recommendation to appoint a regional director to oversee the squads.

”If somebody was telling us what we need to do, that would definitely be a problem,” he said.

The study seems to me a start. Anyone who thinks that a state as populace as New Jersey, with as many people commuting as we have, or working multiple jobs, can continue to rely on volunteers for our emergency services is just fooling themselves. While we might not like to admit it, we will have to go to a paid system at some point. We should have the discussion now and include as many of the main players as we can so that when the time comes, we have something that will work.

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

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Fighting the trucks

This report offers some encouraging news about truck traffic. While the number of trucks on the roads has been on the rise, there appears to be a move by the states to tackle the issue, which in turn may force the courts to rethink their rather narrow conception of what can be done about the problem.

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

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.