Healthcare in America — The Next Conversation Part 8 – Where Do We Go From Here?
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- Healthcare for all
Part 8 Where Do We Go From Here?
I love music, but I don’t really have a clue what is good or bad. I know what I like. I’ve always enjoyed listening to Bonnie Tyler belt out “Holding Out for a Hero,” and maybe that’s what we need now, not necessarily a hero in the way we usually think of one, but someone who can see the possibilities here and is willing to take up the fight.
It doesn’t have to be someone with billions of dollars. It could be someone with a voice that reaches millions of people. It could be someone with the resources to put an idea in front of people who would never otherwise see it. It could be someone who simply has enough credibility that people will stop and listen when they say, “Maybe we ought to think about this.”
Because that’s really what I’m talking about.
I’m not looking for someone to finance a national healthcare system. Nobody could do that. I’m looking for someone who can help make the conversation bigger than it is today.
Those of you who have read this far may already see possibilities here. You may disagree with some of what I’ve written. You may have questions I haven’t answered. You may see problems I haven’t considered. Good. That’s what should happen.
If you come back and read this again, challenge what I’ve said. Ask questions. Talk about it with someone else. Tell me where you think I’m wrong. That’s how ideas develop. That’s how new discussions begin. And sometimes, that’s how change comes about.
It comes back to priorities.
There are people in this country who have accumulated more wealth than they could possibly spend in several lifetimes. I hear the call, “Tax the oligarchs.” Maybe that’s the answer to some problems. Maybe it isn’t. But what we’re talking about here is much bigger than what any individual’s tax bill could pay for.
We aren’t talking about finding a few trillion dollars today and calling the problem solved. We’re talking about building something that would have to work year after year, generation after generation.
So when I think about what enormously wealthy people could do, I don’t necessarily think first about writing a check to pay for healthcare. I think about what happens when someone with enormous resources decides to use some of that wealth, influence and public visibility to champion a cause.
We’ve already seen examples of what substantial private resources can accomplish when they are directed toward problems that governments and institutions have struggled to solve. Nobody expects a private individual or foundation to finance American healthcare. That’s not the point.
The point is influence.
Imagine someone with enough money to open doors, enough credibility to be taken seriously and enough determination to keep talking about an idea long after the news cycle has moved on.
Or imagine someone without that kind of wealth but with a voice that millions of people will listen to.
Maybe that’s the hero we need.
Maybe the person who takes up this cause hasn’t even thought about it yet.
And perhaps instead of asking only what the very wealthy can do with another tax break or another luxury purchase, we should occasionally ask a different question: What could they do to help protect and improve the country that helped create the wealth and power they enjoy?
Maybe sometimes paying it forward is a better investment than buying the next supercar or the next thirteen-million-dollar ski chalet.
I’m not asking for donations. This isn’t about me. Your donations to me wouldn’t make any difference in establishing a Medi healthcare system for everyone anyway.
What I’m asking for is something much harder to put a price on: attention.
Someone willing to say, “This deserves to be discussed.”
Someone willing to keep saying it after the first week.
Someone willing to bring other people into the conversation.
Someone willing to challenge the idea, improve it, find what doesn’t work and help build something better.
We’ve spent this entire series looking at healthcare from different directions. We’ve looked at what other countries do. We’ve looked at what America already has. We’ve looked at how those systems work and how we currently pay for them. We’ve looked at what might be possible without tearing everything down and starting over.
And I’ve tried very hard not to tell you that I have The Answer.
I don’t.
Maybe I’ve done something more useful.
Maybe I’ve simply put an idea on the table.
If it is a good idea, somebody else can pick it up, challenge it, improve it and carry it farther than I ever could.
And if it isn’t a good idea, then I hope somebody tells me why.
That’s the way this is supposed to work.
It doesn’t belong to Democrats.
It doesn’t belong to Republicans.
It doesn’t belong to any political label.
It belongs to the people who would have to live with whatever we eventually build.
So maybe the question isn’t whether there is a hero out there.
Maybe the question is whether there is someone willing to become the voice for an idea that might be worth pursuing.
Any heroes out there?
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