Platform Plank #3 - Healthcare

Healthcare is a hot issue, and perhaps the most difficult of all problems facing the country. So far, no single leader has verbalized anything close to a reasonable or common sense solution to the large and growing healthcare problem.

Perhaps the most important reason we haven't heard a reasonable solution from either political party is that each is too closely tied to their individual benefactors and special interests. This has led to not only a lack of reasonable solutions, but perhaps even policies that have been detrimental to any eventual solution to the problem.

In keeping with my own party's philosphy, my policy toward healthcare reforms is based fundamentally on the idea that no specific group should get more consideration than any other in the development of government policy.

Besides all citizens who are the consumers of healthcare, the powerful interests who fight effectively from their limitless war chests will make the implementation of any healthcare reforms extremely difficult. We have seen the insurance companies, trial lawyers, pharmaceutical companies, labor unions, corporate interests, and healthcare providers all buying the votes in congress to make sure the status quo is maintained.

Solutions require an understanding of the problem. Let's start with a fundamental understanding: We as a society have already decided that we will not deny needed healthcare services to anyone, even if they can't afford those services. The problem today is that there are far too many in that category whose cost of care is simply passed on to everyone who can pay, namely the insured and the government.

Some want a European or Canadian style universal healthcare program, which would immediately put all private health insurers out of business and essentially make all healthcare providers employees of the federal government. I agree with the opponents of this idea who believe it will lead to shortages and rationing of care, as well as drastically harm the quality of care.

On the other hand, we simply can no longer afford to continue passing the buck of uninsured patients on in higher charges to the rest of the population. COBRA, a good idea when it was initiated, is now unaffordable for most of the general population. A basic family health insurance plan costs the worker who leaves or is laid off from his or her job nearly $1,000 per month. That's a bill that won't be accepted by any but the top wage earners in the country, and is no longer an effective measure to keeping the rolls of the insured high.

Solutions require participation from everyone. The uninsured must have access to healthcare that they can afford. However, that doesn't mean they should get a free ride. The government and private insurers must agree to implemented standardized claims processing that reduces the heavy administrative burden currently delaying compensation and burying providers in paperwork. Trial lawyers must be made to think twice about bringing frivolous suits against providers when there has been no malpractice, while true malpractice should see to it that inept and unqualified practitioners lose their licenses.

The policies to be pursued by my administration in regard to healthcare include the following:

• COBRA rules will be replaced by a new insurance portability act that will permit individuals to keep their health insurance even after leaving a company. The policy may be modified with higher deductibles and lower premiums to make it more affordable for the individual.
• For those who are unable to purchase health insurance because of any pre-existing condition or high-risk factors, the opportunity will be extended to join Medicare for a premium rate tied to the individual or family's latest 1040 adjusted gross income. No citizen may be denied coverage for any reason, but nobody will be forced to purchase insurance. It will be made crystal clear to everyone who chooses to remain uninsured that should a catastrophic injury or illness occur while they are uninsured, their property may be subject to confiscation to pay for treatment.
• Companies will be encouraged to provide health coverage for all of their employees. Tax incentives will be created to make it as attractive as possible for all companies to offer coverage to their entire employee population, even including part-time or temporary workers. For small businesses who find it more difficult to acquire group plans at an attractive rate, they will be permitted to band together in large groups to get rates comparable to those enjoyed by larger corporations.
• Free or low-cost wellness programs will be provided through public/private partnership grants to encourage all citizens to participate in exercise, nutrition education, smoking cessation classes, etc.
• Drug and alcohol rehabilitation services will be expanded and made available to a broad segment of the population.
• Non-citizens will be given emergency care only, and forced to pay for non-emergency treatments themselves. Border security and immigration reforms will include specific provisions to help reduce the burden placed on the system today through reducing or eliminating the need for providing free health services to non-citizens unable to pay.
• Medical MalPractice Review Boards will be created to review any malpractice case that is presented alleging harm to a patient due to improper or negligent care. The Review Board will be made up of a mixture of medical and non-medical experts from the community, who must commit to an unbiased review of each case. If the case is deemed to have merit by the Review Board, it will be recommended for referral to civil court proceedings. If the case is deemed without merit by the Review Board, the case can still be heard in civil court, but must include a compelling reason for overturning the findings of the Review Board to proceed.
• Government clinics and hospitals will be opened in major metropolitan areas, where anyone may come for treatment. Charges will be based on ability to pay up to the reasonable and customary limit for all patients. These facilities will generally be affiliated with medical schools, providing a good training ground for medical students and helping to keep costs under control. Emergency Rooms will no longer be the first choice for patients under Medicaid or other government insurers, but these clinics and hospitals will serve those patients. In rural communities, subsidies for treatment of poor and indigent to existing clinics and hospitals will replace the government facilities. Government administration will be outsources to professional healthcare companies subject to regular audit scrutiny to make sure they are keeping overhead costs low and spending tax dollars wisely.
  
• Pharmaceutical companies will have to negotiate with the government to supply high volumes of needed medications for those covered under government-sponsored insurance plans. Volume pricing of drugs can be negotiated to give a fair profit to the companies while helping reduce costs to the government insurance programs.

None of these steps represents a perfect solution. What Americans need to realize is that any solution requires some participation and perhaps sacrifice in order to meet the goal of getting the healthcare problems at least partially under control. That means trial lawyers must be more circumspect about bringing questionable malpractice suits, doctors and providers may need to trade some high treatment rates for lower administration costs, insurers have to conform with standardized claims processing systems, the government must outsource the bureaucracy to keep taxpayer costs low, and individuals must be willing to take on a greater role in paying for their care and participating in wellness programs.

All of this can greatly improve the sytem over time, although it is fully expected that the programs will require constant monitoring and adjustment to keep in step with the real needs and issues that will certainly continue to change.

Platform Issue #2 - Immigration

Immigration is a hot topic these days, and many people right now list it either #1 or #2 among the major political issues of our time.

Whatever one thinks about illegal immigration, the problems it is presenting for our country cannot be ignored. While it is probably true that the majority of illegal immigrants simply want to work hard and build a better life for their families, it is also true that illegal immigration is creating massive problems placing unprecedented stress on our welfare, healthcare, education, and justice systems.

Illegals access social services and healthcare in massive numbers that US citizen taxpayers cannot sustain. Among the aliens sneaking across the border are drug smugglers and gang members driving up crime and stressing law enforcement resources. And finally, in these critical times where our government must protect citizens from the very real threat of terrorism, we can no longer risk open borders that might help terrorists gain entry to carry out their destruction in our cities.

In a strange alliance, we're seeing politicians on both the left and right doing their level best to ignore this huge national security issue. The political left use rhetoric that pretends these illegals are the equivalent to all other, legal, immigrants, and those who wish to control the borders do so solely out of racist and xenophobic world views. On a more practical and perhaps cynical level, the left welcomes illegal immigrants and work hard to support uncontrolled voting rights laws that allow those immigrants to vote, presumably for their left-wing candidates.

The political right looks the other way on illegal immigration for very different, but no less cynical purposes. To those politicians on the right, illegal immigrants supply a cheap source of labor to their corporate benefactors, who encourage lax border enforcement so they can continue to fill their unskilled positions with sub-minimum-wage workers from across the border who are happy to work for low wages and no benefits.

Some raise an argument that illegal immigrants fill jobs that no native-born American will take. Whether or not this is true depends on how the conditions of those jobs are defined. If the definition of the job is unskilled and perhaps difficult and physical work for minimum wage with no benefits, then it is true that most native-born Americans will not accept the job. But the same job with a higher wage and benefits could definitely attract US-born workers.

And even legal immigration is hurting some sectors of our workforce, especially in the technical and customer service industries. I've personally seen the legal importation of technology workers from India who specifically displaced their higher-wage US-born counterparts for no reason other than the Indians were willing to work longer hours for a fraction of the compensation.

There are some fundamental principles involved in this issue, which form the foundation for my policy on immigration as President:

1. As a matter of national security, the first priority of my administration is to seal the borders, both northern and southern. The borders will be strictly enforced, and illegal immigration will cease.
2. The legal immigration policy will be modified to permit immigration under specific circumstances. For example, companies can sponsor immigration of foreign workers either on temporary work permits or on a citizenship track by demonstrating that there is a need for the foreign workers to fill open positions that cannot be filled with US Citizens. The policy would not grant work permits for foreign workers being imported to displace US citizen employees. Recognizing that Central and South American workers have long been a mainstay in agriculture and other industries, legal temporary work permits will be made available for those workers, but based on sponsorship from the companies who plan to employ them. Employers will be asked to assist the government in policing immigrants, identifying those who overstay their work permits or quit their jobs and try to disappear into the population.

There are not many laws that need to be changed, but perhaps somewhat modified to help streamline the immigration processes. Otherwise, the resources need to be employed to make sure we effectively regain control over our borders and protect our citizens from terrorism.

Campaign Issue 1 - Iraq

Where else to start with my campaign platform than today's hottest issue - the war in Iraq.

At times when I hear the talking heads bluster and spin about the war, it becomes difficult to discern just who's telling the truth. And I suspect the only real way to find out the truth is to go to Iraq myself and ride around with some of the soldiers, meet the Iraqi people, get briefed by some of the commanders, etc.

Barring that for the time being, my campaign's policy on Iraq follows the party's mission: common sense above all.

Anti-war folks claim to be so based on a couple of basic arguments: We never should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place, and now that we're there, there is no way we can win.

Doing my level best to consider those arguments from a logical point of view, I have to reach my own conclusions, as follows:

First, whether or not we should have gone into Iraq, the fact remains that we are there, Saddam has been removed from power, and we're well into a program of reconstruction and helping launch a new democratic government there. So to argue incessantly about whether we should have gone to war in the first place is irrelevant to today's situation. For this reason, I say we rededicate ourselves to finishing what we started and let the historians and political spinmeisters argue amongst themselves about whether it was a good idea.

Second, to suggest we cannot win in Iraq is perhaps the worst sort of anti-Americanism, and it troubles me that leaders of a major political party are suggesting such near-treasonous rhetoric. If we consider for even a moment how our nation's military, the absolute strongest and best in the world, could lose the war in Iraq, there can only be one way. That's if their country fails to support their mission. We all must honor and grieve the two thousand plus soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq. But we must also recognize that this is the price for freedom and security, not only for our own citizens, but for the free citizens of Iraq as well.

And to put it into perspective, these two thousand lost over three years is lower than the number of citizens murdered in Los Angeles over the same time period. Perhaps that issue deserves at least as much attention from a government policy perspective as our losses in Iraq. But that is a subject for another position paper to appear in this blog later.

Therefore, the policy of this presidency is an absolute commitment to finishing the job of helping to establish a free, open, stable democratic society in Iraq that is a shining example to their troubled region of the world of how free people are the happiest, safest, and most successful over all other repressive dictatorships, Islamist, socialist and communist societies. This doesn't mean continuing to do everything exactly as it has been done to date by the Bush Administration; in fact, every facet of the effort in Iraq will be continuously reviewed and monitored, with continuous improvements in tactics, weapons, and defenses implemented with speed and efficiency to help minimize casualties for both our troops and Iraqi civilians.

Our country will never fully leave Iraq, and we expect to maintain some presence there in the forseeable future. Not to dominate or intimidate, but to aid in their protection and maintain our alliance should another country in the region become belligerent to Iraq or the United States. Iran and Syria, Iraq's two neighbors which are also avowed enemies of the United States, and by extension Iraq, both must be held in check by our continued vigilant presence in Iraq.

There are already signs that President Bush's long-term vision of peace and freedom for the entire middle eastern region is just now beginning to take hold. Progress is being made in the Israeli-Paletinian conflict, Libya has renounced their WMD programs, Lebanon has kicked the Syrians out of their country, and Iranian citizens are beginning to agitate for freedom from their extremist Mullah-controlled government.

At a minimum, seeing this conflict through to its conclusion will result in establishing a friendly and reasonably stable Iraq. But we will reach for more through our continued presence and diplomacy throughout the region, continually cajoling Iraq's neighbors into joining a peaceful and free world community.

Dan for President

So here it is, my official/unofficial announcement of my candidacy for President of the United States. After much study and research of the expected candidates from both major political parties, I have reached the conclusion that there is no available candidate who either reflects my views of government or can legitimately claim to be immune from corruption by the denizens of the lobbies and cocktail parties of Washington, DC.

There seems to be little point in introducing myself, as for most people that information would be boring and irrelevant. Besides, the major obstacles facing my election committee right now are many: The committee itself (there's nobody on it), campaign finance (I've got a little over 20 bucks in my pocket right now), and lack of name recognition (Dan who?).

This campaign is instead based completely on ideas and philosophies. If you read this and future blog entries and agree with my platform, join my new party and help get the word out on the "Dan for President" campaign. If you hate my ideas, fine, go away.

We will begin the campaign with the platform of the new party under which I make my run for the Presidency. For lack of a better idea at this point in time, I'll just call it the "Common Sense Party", or CSP for short.

The CSP is dedicated to the following principles:

• Preservation of constitutional principles of freedom and equality, and vigilantly assuring continued compliance with every paragraph and amendment as defined therein
  
• Protecting the United States' borders, language, and culture against foreign assailants
• Defeating terrorism
• Protecting the United States' sovereignty from global government movements while using both the carrot and the stick in encouraging foreign governments to become and remain friends
• Maintaining capitalism while enforcing antitrust laws and never giving preferences to any individual, corporation, or labor union
• Protecting the rights of citizens to worship (or not worship) as they please without impeding anyone's freedom of speech, only excepting advocates of violence and terror
• Seating judges who interpret the constitution and the laws on the books and do not attempt to create their own laws
• Maintaining a strong military that is able to protect the country against all threats while making sure all tax money for defense is spent wisely and appropriately
• Implementing social programs designed to solve problems and eliminating those programs that have failed
• Throwing out the current tax code in favor of a simple, fair tax that treats everyone equally
• Finding realistic solutions to healthcare that require participation from everyone and favor no individual or group over any other

Over the next few posts, which I'll create whenever the whim presents itself, I will expand on the above points. Most likely, I'll add some more points as well.

If you like the ideas presented by the CSP, leave a comment. If you don't like them, you can comment too, but if the comment is objectionable I'll delete it. On the other hand, a well-reasoned argument against any one principle in my platform could possibly entice me to rethink that plank; then again, I highly doubt it, but good luck if you want to give it a try.