A One-Page Alternative to the 1000-Page Health Care Bill

Some commentors have criticized the Democrats' plan for health care as being too long and complex for a normal individual to easily read. 

Health care is inherently complex as anyone who has seen a relative fight cancer and insurance companies simultaneously can easily attest.  Nonetheless, I can and hereby do propose a one-page statutory solution for Americans who lack health care or lack adequate and affordable care: 

The 2009 One-Page Omnibus Health Care Act

1. The US Government hereby announces that the receipt of medically
2.  necessary health care, pharmaceutical products and devices is a
3.  fundamental and individual right and therefore directs
4. the president to propose such tax increases for the rich (with
5.  household income in excess of $500.000 per year) as are
6.  deemed necessary for the US Government to provide health care for
7.  anyone present in the United States and its territories who requests
8. such care at a Government institution.  No government employee or
9. other person or institution shall inquire into the income or assets of
10.  those receiving such Government care and no such person shall
11.  accept compensation of any kind for such care; and they shall not
12.  ever refuse such care for
13.  lack of compensation; and they shall not ever refuse such care for
    
14. any other reason, nor shall they apply needs-based tests. Health Care
15.  at Government-run facilities is henceforth an individual right
16.  enforceable at law by any individual denied adequate care that is
    
17. medically necessary.  The Government shall immediately hire such
18.  salaried doctors, nurses, administrators and other staff as necessary
    
19. to carry out the purposes of this act.  The Government shall purchase
20.  or construct such facilities as are deemed necessary to fulfill the
21.  purposes of this Act.  The Government shall further
22.  provide for the free and public education of medical and other
23.  professionals whose services are needed and who contract to serve
24.  the public in the Government program for a stipulated period of time
25.  or repay to the Government the cost of the education they have
26.  received.  Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted to prohibit the
27.  provision and purchase of private medical services or compel any
28.  person, corporation or organization to contract for or forego the
29. services of private insurance policies.
    

There it is!  It's a health care bill in one page, just like the amemdments to our Constitution have generally been short and sweet.  This proposed Act allows private health care insurers to continue to play the games with people's health and lives for which those insurers are notorious, but it provides a Government safety net for those to whom the privates refuse necessary care, as well as those who are so disenchanted and disgusted with the private insurance corporations that they no longer want private insurance. 

The above proposed Act allows, but does not require, Americans to decide to abandon their private insurance if they discover that their private insurance does not meet their needs or does not meet their needs for a price they can afford.

Will this bill attract more Republican and insurance company and highly paid corporate lobbyist support because it is short and sweet?  Only if pigs can fly. Those corporations and lobbyists who supposedly oppose the present bills because they are too long would, nonetheless, gladly add an additional 200 pages to the bill, if doing so would help them to earn more money from other people's medical tragedies.

The Democrats' proposed bill is hardly longer or less understandable than my last HMO's list of bottom-fishing doctors and health care facilities that were obviously chosen because they were the cheapest and not because they were the best.

How long should a health care bill be?

When I bought a do-it-yourself guide to fix my car, the guidebook was over 200 pages long, with text and graphics.  I don't see how a law to fix our nation's health care and guarantee care for three hundred million people can be shorter than a guidebook for one person to repair one car.

Is 200 pages too long or too short?

When I studied Civil Procedure in law school, our text was about 400 pages long, and I bought an additional 250-page horn book to help me do well in the course.  If it takes six hundred and fifty pages for one student to learn Civil Procedure, how can we expect to guarantee the provision of health care for three hundred million people nationally with a law shorter than a typical law school textbook?