Health Care Minimum in the next four years?

Health Care Minimum

Let me pick one item about which I feel very strong and would hope that the next administration will accomplish and improve.

Premise: I see children (birth to 18 years) as being separate from their parents. Suffice for simplicity I choose to give them absolute rights that are debatable for adults. I choose to become an advocate for those rights. For this opinion, I am speaking only of the children. Some are lucky (or selected by God depending on your belief) to be born to two intelligent, thinking, rational, and driven parents. They may even be educated or even also wealthy. Those children are likely not in my equation here.

There are others, at the other end of the spectrum (Did God select them for this mission too), who are born to parents who are not so caring, not so resourceful, and not so loving. These children's dental and doctor care is balanced against cost. They lose. These children’s mental and physical health (Not even considering outside influences such as love, positive reinforcements, psychological support) will lack based on what the parents choose or don’t choose which is affected by money, by caring, by knowledge, by convenience, etc. (If we are not in agreement at this point, perhaps your comments should address only my premise.)

Proposition: It is my belief and expectation that these children should be granted a right, a human right of decency by all who live in America, to have dental and doctor care. This is care regardless of the ability of their parents to pay. This is care to move their formulative years one small step closer to equality. This is care to enable them to better prepare to be adults.

I feel that we should all pay a small portion of some form of our taxes into a fund that covers this collective cost and that it becomes our obligation to these children. (I have no data to support but would believe that with all of us paying the cost per payer would be relatively low, perhaps lower than a policy for one’s own children.) I don’t really care nor here want to get into whether it is provided by doctors working for the government or whether they are given an insurance policy administered by our existing private insurers. That would be a discussion for “how” that should follow the “if” after agreement is reached on the “if”.

I submit that the “minimum” coverage insurance might not cover catastrophic illnesses or might cover all illnesses up to 12 years and non-catastrophic after 12. I would grant this concession only to get it passed while discussion continues. My choice would be to cover all, even catastrophic to age 18.

In the cases where parents can afford and can choose a better level of care for their children, they can purchase a “rider” that in effect gives them credit for the basic but elevates the coverage. OR, they could buy into, through regular monthly/annual payments, a “after 18” policy that is like a “college fund” in that it provides years of coverage after age 18 that helps the then-adult get a better start.

It would be my suggestion that Congress agree on the “if” as a matter of principle then work on the “how” with a deadline for a result. They would have to find some leaders.

In order to achieve what I have just stated, I believe we have a MUCH better chance with an Obama Administration. I have no hope, not a prayer, that anything even close to this could occur with a Romney/Ryan administration.  

I am not sure how our current Congress, based on the last 4 years, could come to any level of agreement. Shame on them if that is the case. (Key word is current)

I see nothing here with which a good American could disagree but I am sure that there are good Americans who will disagree. I am open to rational reasoning. I would like to read reasoned disagreement or agreement.