Carter Wrenn posted on July 06, 2012 10:27
How Washington went about setting health care policy is for more erudite minds than mine but here goes:
Tom, Dick and Harry rolled into the ER in ambulances and each was having a heart attack – Tom’s so poor he couldn’t afford to buy health insurance, Dick could almost afford it but not quite, and Harry could have afforded it but didn’t buy it.
Now there were millions of Tom, Dick and Harrys without insurance and they put a hole in the health care boat so both the Washington Democrats and the Washington Republicans went to studying the problem.
Obama came up with an answer first: He decided to give Tom free health care, give Dick a bit of money so he could buy insurance, and he gave Harry a choice: Harry could buy insurance or pay a tax (Obama called it a penalty).
That didn’t sound too awful but, then, Obama went a step further and put the government in charge of all health care which to the Republicans sounded more deadly than typhoid – so the Washington politicians have been raising such a ruckus ever since no one’s had a moment’s peace.
And that’s a fair example of how Washington sets policy.
There’s a bad solution (Obama’s).
And no solution (the Washington Republicans’).
And the whole thing ended up in the Supreme Court.