Just Call Me "Grace"

The other night while walking back to the car from a store, I didn't see a rock on the ground in the parking lot. When I stepped on it, I twisted my ankle. It all happened so fast that I didn't have time to get my hands out squarely in front of me. I was close enough to the car to stumble quickly head-first into the rear passenger door, like a lovesick goat battling a rival. The car won, although I left a good-sized dent where my head hit it. I think it learned its lesson anyway.

I heard a "crack" in my back and the wind was knocked out of me. I fell to the ground in a heap writhing in pain and unable to breathe. I remember thinking two things while I was gasping for air:

1) I hope nobody is looking at me.
2) I wonder if I just paralyzed myself?

This morning I woke up early because of the pain between my shoulder blades. I know that I should go to the doctor, but I just switched health plans due to the move, and don't have an insurance card to show. Heck, I don't even know where a doctor is yet.

This got me thinking about health care and the two major candidate's policies on health care. I went to each web site to look up their plans. They are not terribly dissimilar in actuality.

The major difference is that McCain wants to provide people with a $2500 tax credit to purchase private insurance. Those who are denied private insurance would be relegated to a state plan of some sort.

Obama's plan is to provide employers with tax credits of 50% of their employee's policy premiums if they cover their employees, otherwise, if they provide nothing they will be subject to a payroll tax. For those who fall through the cracks, there will be a national affordable health plan available for purchase. The cost of the plan will depend upon one's income.

While these plans have some similarities, McCain's plan puts the burden on the individual states, while Obama's puts the burden on the federal government. I suppose my biggest question is, how does the federal government go about forcing the states to insure their populations? I didn't realize the feds had this power. I can only imagine the disparity that will exist between each state's plan. And those states with lower tax bases will have inferior plans, creating a huge set of differences in care from state to state. Sounds like a real mess to me.

I think if we are going to do something to ensure that we all have access to at least basic health care, it has to be an "all or nothing deal", and not relegated to each state to figure out. I don't know what the answer is.

I do know that we have to do something to see that we all have access to health care. Either that, or we are going to have to create federal oversight to see that all rocks are swept away from parking lots.