Information on Republican Health Care Reform Proposals

Last Saturday John Boehner gave an address in which he outlined "Republicans' plan for common-sense health care reform our nation can afford."

This is what I have been looking for, I'm just a little disappointed that it has come out just a week before the Democratic bill is scheduled to be voted on. There is some helpful information included here at the GOP website. The links at the bottom are very helpful, and I wish I had been able to find this information earlier, as many of these documents were written this summer.

There is a lot of information here, and I don't know if I will have the time to look over all of it, but from what I've seen it looks like some of what has been proposed by Republicans is similar to what the Democrats have proposed, including "pooling mechanisms" to help small businesses and individuals find affordable coverage, and providing coverage for those with pre-existing conditions through "high-risk pools" and "reinsurance" (I don't understand those terms, though, so I'd have to do a little more research on that). The Republican proposals also include medical liability reform and the ability for employees to find their own insurance if they don't like what their employer offers, while retaining the same tax incentives their employer gets. These things sound good to me. One thing I can't quite understand, though is that many of the proposals strengthen Medicare--isn't that government run health care?

As I said, I found this information to be very helpful. What I find frustrating is that Republican politicians and conservative commentators have focused so predominantly on attacking their opponents, rather than on trying to provide good information about both sides of the debate. Many conservative Christians have gone with the flow of the media, simply believing what they are told by anyone who claims to believe in God and holds conservative views, and then repeating it. I read once that a prophet needs to not only send the message that something is wrong, they need to paint the picture of what could be. If conservative Christians have felt that the Democratic health care proposals are wrong, I wish they would have respectfully and reasonably pointed out what was wrong, affirmed that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed, and then painted the picture of what could be. I wonder if things would be different at this point if that had been the approach taken several months ago.

Well, we'll see what happens on Saturday (last I heard that was when they were hoping to vote on the bill). If the bill is voted down, I think I will be a little relieved, and will hope that everyone can start from scratch to find something that will address the real problems in our health care system. If the bill passes, I think I might also be a little relieved, but hope that those who want real change will not feel that they have gotten it and sit back and do nothing. There are those who feel that this bill's passing will be the beginning of the end of our country as we know it--I can' t say I agree with this, but even if the worst did come to pass, God is still on the throne.