True North

In the interest of fairness and to facilitate the ongoing debate I’m presenting a plank I don’t entirely agree with. That being said, I am completely opposed to single payer, National Health.

Section 4

Strengthening Families and Communities

The Republican Party recognizes the Blessings that God has bestowed on this great nation. We declare our faith in Him and ask His continued guidance as we work to preserve this government of “One Nation Under God”. We also recognize the sanctity of human life and the central role of the traditional family in our society. Therefore we believe that:

Programs that reduce health care costs by introducing genuine market competition into the system and eliminating state mandated coverage of various illnesses and conditions. We oppose all proposals for socialized (i.e. ‘single payer’) medicine, and support the repeal of MinnesotaCare, and opposing programs that ration health care.

I’m with the GOP on everything but the repeal of MNCare. Those of us in the private sector know how damned expensive health insurance is. There is a segment of our society that will never be able to pay the freight on a private plan. It is in the best interest of our society to make sure as many of those people as possible (who really need the help) stay as healthy as possible. Using hospital emergency rooms as walk-in clinics is poor public policy, and California’s current crisis in this area should be a warning to the rest of the nation.

I honestly don’t know enough about MnCare to offer an opinion on the relative merits or demerits. I do know that Minnesota has a reputation for being, shall we say, generous with social benefits, so it would not surprise me to learn that undeserving people are using MnCare.

We are always going to have fellow citizens that need help. There will always be need and want in our communities. What we need to address these is balance and practicality. Nationalizing health care provides neither. In my perfect world we would have a two-tired system, one that provides on demand, quality health care for those able to afford it, and one that provides adequate, no-frills health care for those who cannot.

We have an abysmal record in the application of accountability regarding social services. This needs to change. Putting the Democrat Party in charge is not in our best interests. They will not change a damn thing.

At least not for the better.

Cross-posted at Anti-Strib. Comments welcome.