Doctors Lead the Fight
Before he became President, General Eisenhower won WWII by relying on the expertise of skilled professionals in all sorts of fields. A good leader knows how to balance competing priorities to keep everyone focused on winning the battle, and winning the war.
Our current President refuses to keep the focus on beating COVID so that we can begin the hard work of putting out country back on track. Instead, he pits priorities against each other, turning what should be a united struggle against our shared enemy into a bar brawl against other Americans.
Keith McCormic will put the doctors who know the most about fighting epidemics at the head of our strategy. Experts like Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, and the CDC have the experience to win this war.
It’s time they have a President who will make sure they have the tools and supplies they need to get the job done.
Treat Everyone to Kill COVID
All the way back in 1912, conservative hero Teddy Roosevelt knew that our medical system was so badly broken it could fail us in a crisis. He proposed bringing more unity and resources to government health departments at all levels.
In the 108 years since, our medical insurance system has continued to get worse, especially after Neoliberals took power in Richard Nixon’s administration. Today, medical costs are the number one destroyer of family wealth, forcing many hardworking Americans to lose all of their retirement savings. Many even lose their homes.
As conservatives, we are honor bound to accept the facts- and the facts are grim. So, as Bull Moose conservatives, we choose to take up the torch Teddy Roosevelt handed down to the future of America.
In the face of a cruel, heartless pandemic, we need to make sure that every person in America is getting lifesaving medical care. If people are afraid to get tested or be treated, the disease will keep spreading.
All of our government health agencies need to be streamlined into a single chain-of-command led by the Surgeon General and a stronger United States Public Health Service.
This agency would provide basic insurance coverage to everyone in America, but only for the most serious health problems- things like COVID, cancer, accidents, and things like that. Medicare and Medicaid are already one of the most efficient health care bureaucracies in America- much, much less wasteful than any for-profit insurance. It’s time for us to use that efficiency to battle sickness and death.
This plan will also greatly reduce the cost of traditional health insurance, because it would not have to cover the most difficult medical costs, and could instead focus on better care for everything else.
Medical Price Fairness
Neoliberals claim that our health insurance system is a “free market”, but truly free markets need to allow customers the ability to know what things cost before they buy.
You should be able to shop with confidence.
But you can’t. Drug costs and medical bills are a mess.
Imagine if you went to McDonald’s and had no idea what a Big Mac cost. You have to pay $5 for one while the guy in front of you pays $7 for two. The lady behind you might only get charged $1 for the same Big Mac- and someone behind her could wind up paying $15!
That’s insane, isn’t it? But that’s how our health care is priced today.
From hospitals and doctors’ offices to insurance companies and drug companies, a lot of health care companies try really hard to hide pricing information from each other and from you, the consumer. That’s not Capitalism, it’s Corporate Communism.
Keith McCormic will fight to make sure that every company doing business in health care has a one-price model and that everyone knows every bill upfront, before care is given. If there’s a discount available, everyone should easily be able to know what it is and how to get it. If you can save more by buying more, anyone should be able to have that option.
Keep the Sick Off the Street
The President’s cowardly surrender to COVID-19 is destroying America’s economy. People are losing their jobs and many are losing their homes, in spite of what the White House claims.
As many as 1 out of every 10 Americans could become homeless this year. That’s about half the rural population of the U.S. getting thrown out on the street.
Every homeless person is an easy victim for COVID and other dangerous diseases- and the only way to prevent them from increasing the risk to others is to get them off the street and into safe, individual or family housing. Crowded shelters simply can’t meet the demand.
In a crisis, we conservatives have a moral duty to choose an effective solution instead of waiting for a perfect one.
Keith McCormic will lead the fight to use Constitutional Eminent Domain powers to purchase empty houses and apartments from deadbeat owners to house the homeless. His administration will bring together the Army Corps of Engineers, the Navy Seabees, local contractors, and non-profit groups to quickly fix these houses up to get people off the street and contain COVID.
Once the current crisis is defeated and our economy is booming again, the government will be able to sell off these homes to their current occupants, local housing agencies, and the general market.
Promote Fair Competition
America is supposed to be a Capitalist nation, but under Neoliberal rule, we are almost the exact opposite. Giant companies use their wealth to buy politicians and crush competition.
In addition to our plan to fight illegal trusts and promote fair pricing in health care, we also need to put the choice of what health care coverage you want back in YOUR hands.
Any insurance plan sold in a state should be available to everyone in that state for the same price. Each year, you’d be able to compare all the plans and pick the one that makes sense for you and your family.
You, and not your employer, should get to choose what plan you buy. Your job would still pay their portion, just like now, but you’d make the final decision. If you lost your job, the government would step in to help until you found a new one. Then, with your new job, your coverage would stay the same- you wouldn’t need to pick new doctors like happens so often today.
We already have a government website that makes it easy to compare healthcare plans, and Keith McCormic has the tech savvy and website experience to lead his administration in making it even easier and better.