Republican Health Care

A Plan To D.I.E. For

Republicans have criticized the Obama administration’s effort to reform health care as expensive increases to spending already out of control.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said on the GOP web site that “The Democrats’ government-run plan won’t reduce health care costs, it won’t allow Americans to keep their insurance or doctors, and it won’t promote competition.”

Democrats reply that the Republicans offer no plan, quoting the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley’s one-size fits all policy critique “What trees do they plant?”

From a registered Republican, here is a proposal that would reduce health care costs, offer a stimulus to the economy and give room for private initiative to bloom. In legislative form it would be called the Death Incentive Enablement Act of 2009.

Recognizing that end-of-life and serious illness care is a very significant part of overall health spending by both government and private insurers, the D.I.E. act offers the tried-and-true American idea of incentive payments.

Incentives clearly worked for Goldman-Sachs and AIG. Why not healthcare? Here’s how:

Suppose you are diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Today, you can light one up and contemplate a future that will see you and Medicare spend around $160,000 for the last six months of your life. You’ll check out in pain and leave your family in debt.

Under the D.I.E. plan, it could be different. It could be ennobling, quick, and besides, everyone involved would make a buck.

If you got a terminal lung cancer diagnosis, the D.I.E. plan would present you with options since you have six months to live at a cost of more than $26,000 a month. This plan in the Republican free-enterprise tradition would split the savings with your heirs if you check out early – half-and-half, fair and square.

So if you got your diagnosis on Monday and died on Tuesday, the government would pay your estate $80,000 and the taxpayers and private insurance companies would mournfully pocket the other $80,000 they might otherwise have spent. Republican thinking at its finest – everyone who continues to count wins.

Now the D.I.E. act would recognize that not everyone is decisive enough to die the day after a terminal diagnosis, so there would be a sliding scale of payment. The longer your goodbye, the smaller the take for your heirs and the smaller the savings for the government.

Under the D.I.E. act, Republican-run health care would appeal to your sense of family and patriotism, but since Republicans champion the individual, if you choose to be a sniveling burden to family and society, Republicans will support that sorry right of selfishness. Just look to their record on abortion rights to see their support of individual choice.

Even with the best of initial wording, the administrative details of the D.I.E. act would require additional legislation. There is, for example, the actual check-out mechanism once an individual has made the appropriate choice.

Details need to be addressed, but a plan based on Republican abhorrence to government doing what private citizens should do could be worked out with the National Rifle Association, a firm supporter of individualism and Second Amendment rights. In exchange for a federal, national law permitting concealed weapons, for example, NRA members could serve as Private D.I.E. specialists, providing end-of-life services on a individual basis. That would expand the economy by creating new private-sector jobs and prove once again the tremendous power of free enterprise and an armed society.

Besides making a solid contribution in controlling health care costs, the D.I.E act would have a positive impact on the coming Social Security shortfall and employment, reducing a potential retirement burden and creating job openings at the same time.

While Democrats blather about universal health care supported by taxing the rich, remember this solid Republican alternative and make your voice heard. Shout above the roar of the crowd “Republicans have a health-care plan to die for!”

Then please remember that a good Republican leads by example.

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