Kissing Healthcare

No, this is not about communicable diseases spread through smooching. It's got nothing to do with love, or sex. It's a commentary on the complexity of healthcare reform.

Now, for those of you still reading this, here it is (and you are probably way ahead of me):

Keep It Simple Stupid

We've all heard the rumors of 1000 page drafts of multiple bills in the House and Senate. Imagine the veritable army of interns spending all night every night reading, writing, and creating synopses for their bosses. The Washington, D.C. pizza delivery industry must be booming.

Now that, my friends, is too complex. And that is what my fellow Democrats are doing. They are the Anti-KISS.

The Republicans? They are taking KISS too far - they aren't doing anything. I'll give them this, that approach is economical of effort and allows them to store up energy for tea parties and disruptive outbursts at presidential speeches. But it's not helping us fix any problems.

Healthcare reform should be kept to it's simplest goals:

Ensure every person gets care that will help and not hurt (physically, emotionally, or financially). The principle should be that nobody will be allowed to stay sick or die in American because they couldn't afford the care. And 'afford' means the ability to pay without sacrificing too much - it will not mean paying for care by not eating or losing your home or not sending your kids to college.

Ensure care is guaranteed to persist through job changes, periods of unemployment, and long illnesses. The care you need will always be available, even when you can't afford to pay the healthcare premiums. (This is critical if you intend to require everyone have coverage). And nobody will be denied because of prior conditions, genetic predisposition, or history of illness.

Ensure care is of high and consistent quality. Sure, the Very Rich may be able to buy new, cutting edge treatment sooner than available to the rest of us - that's free enterprise and somebody needs to be the guinea pigs - but once a procedure or a medicine has been approved as a standard of care, it will be available to everyone that needs it.

Ensure care is cost-effective. The cost of care will not increase unpredictably and any taxpayer money spent will either be recouped or justified by increased benefits. We will never again pay more money for worse care.

That's it. Care should be available, persistent, of consistently high quality, and cost-effective. I hope my fellow Democrats mulling this over in Congress can find these 'Four Ensures' within those thousand-page tomes, and sharpen their focus. I also hope the Republicans will start collaborating on this focus, rather than trying to break it.

It doesn't matter whether these goals are accomplished solely through private enterprise, or joined with a 'public option'. It's time to stop 'wrestling' with Healthcare - and just KISS it.