Medicine and Politics

            Both Republicans and Democrats are in trouble over medical issues in the upcoming Presidential circus.  It's amusing because if they just used a bit of common sense both parties could avoid the problem.  Let's take a look at the Republican problem first. 

            At some point between the twinkle in the eye of a teenager and the following twenty or so years an impulse becomes a person.  The issue is when does that happen?  I favor when they turn 21, but I suppose that isn't a popular position.  Realistically, no one knows at what point a person becomes a person.  Could it be when the sperm first fertilizes the egg?  There are some people who take that position.  Could it be even earlier?  I don't see why you can't make that argument.  To some people it happens when the baby departs the mother into the world.  If this was a logic problem, or even a legal problem I would be happy to debate it.  Unfortunately I don't believe it is either of those.  It is a medical or moral problem.  The government has proven amazingly inept at making decisions in either of those arenas.  In spite of that, the Republican party insists on deciding for us at what point a fetus becomes a person.  So long as they hold to that position it will cost them many votes - especially among women. 

            The Democrats on the other hand have a different kind of medical issue.  A few years ago they went the time honored political route of creating a problem so they could get credit for solving it.  The problem they decided on was that there were people who didn't have medical insurance.  Come to think of it, there are people who don't have life insurance either, maybe they will tackle that one next - but I digress.  Their approach to making everyone buy insurance was to create a government program where the government would actually pay about 95% of the insurance premiums.  Then they came up with this nonsense that rates couldn't be based on risks, everyone had to be charged the same thing whether they were in perfect health or on the waiting list for a heart transplant.  They made their program - laughingly called "Affordable Health Care act" - so expensive to the businesses that had previously provided health care for their employees that the businesses dropped the coverage in wholesale lots.  Then the states expanded their free medical care programs and the Democrats considered these new poor people as newly insured thus allowing them to claim that more people actually had insurance than before.  The problem with the whole program is that the public is slow to react, but they do react eventually and they are no longer buying this silliness. 

            So, when it all sorts out, I suspect that whichever party manages to deal best with their medical issue will wind up the big winner in 2016.  What do you think?