Two days ago, a friend of a friend, Dave Gurner, wrote to President Obama with a novel idea to keep the costs of health care down and thereby obviate the need for a government takeover of the greatest health care system in the world. Dave, by the way, is not a doctor. He holds a degree in History from Cal State University Northridge, is a former VISTA volunteer, and for the past 26 years has made his living in sales. No doubt his proposal will not sit well with many in the legal profession, but as the president likes to say: "we all have to have some skin in the game."
Dave had sent a query to the president asking how the new health care plan would effect him. He received the following E-Mail in response.
Dear Friend,
If you’re like most Americans, there’s nothing more important to you about health care than peace of mind.
Given the status quo, that’s understandable. The current system often denies insurance due to pre-existing conditions, charges steep out-of-pocket fees – and sometimes isn’t there at all if you become seriously ill.
It’s time to fix our unsustainable insurance system and create a new foundation for health care security. That means guaranteeing your health care security and stability with eight basic consumer protections:
No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
No cost-sharing for preventive care
No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
No gender discrimination
No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
Extended coverage for young adults
Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid
Learn more about these consumer protections at Whitehouse.gov.
Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt.
It’s time to act and reform health insurance, drive down costs and guarantee the health care security and stability of every American family. You can help by putting these core principles of reform in the hands of your friends, your family, and the rest of your social network.
Thank you,
Barack Obama
Without commenting on the obvious disingenuousness, duplicitousness, and brazen inaccuracies contained in the president's E-Mail, Dave simply responded with his brilliant proposal.
Good Evening Mr. President,
Thank you for these notes detailing your points of view. I would suggest a different approach, however, that I believe would not only lower the cost of medicine in the United States, thus making it affordable for all Americans, but would also help our total economic recovery creating near total employment, more purchasing power for all Americans, and, the growing economic activity would add to the general tax receipts reducing the deficit and may even achieve a balanced budget. I have run this by several people that I respect, including doctors, and they seem to agree that it has merit and it fits in with all of the talk about the benefits of nationalization of industries and professions.
My suggestion is to nationalize the legal profession. This makes sense and I would like to share with you my rationale. We already have precedent with judges already being government employees. Many lawyers are government employees too, working as public defenders and prosecutors. Laws themselves are made by government. It is natural to think of all lawyers, then, as government employees. It would in fact, take the profit motive out of law suits, thus eliminating ambulance chasing lawyers who will sue just to make a lucrative buck. We all know of lawyers like that, don't we?
How would this make health care more affordable? With the profit motive out of the legal profession, doctors would not practice defensive medicine and the amount of expensive and time consuming tests would decrease dramatically. The cost of doctors’ malpractice insurance would decrease and the savings would be passed on to the patients. The costs to insurance companies would also go down and the savings would be passed on to the insured. You can see how this would be applicable to other industries too.
For you politically, this is a real winner. Most Americans do have at least some animosity towards lawyers. Do not get me wrong, I realize the importance of, and have a lot of respect for, the work that lawyers and judges do. Many of our founding principles were written by lawyers, after all. I just wish that we would get back to them.
Thank you Mr. President and God speed.
David Gurner
