To The Loop. Health care in the year 2009 is about to get worse. The reason is that funding for existing government health care, Medicare and Medicaid, will be threatened by what ever bill gets passed: there’s zero possibility of any good coming out of the posturing and deception in congress. Another bad harbinger is that health industry lobbyists outnumber congress six to one. Maybe you differ, but maybe you will agree that Vashon should do something. One possibility I’m hearing is that we look into a self-contained single payer plan. The grail is that by eliminating paperwork we can save so much as to fund not only basic care but actually build up a reserve for corrective surgery. The national hope is dead, state hope is very slim, but Vashon hope for single payer is viable.

For those having trouble sorting out the posturing and deception, the crux of the health care situation is easy to describe: it is not health care at all but instead is a commodity in which to invest for profit. Look at it this way, do you need insurance to be able to get basic care? So chuck the whole load of baggage and focus on how we can keep ourselves healthy: it’s nutrition, regular checkups, and a well-equipped surgery.

Here then is a three part proposal: Define basic care, estimate the cost, and design the funding tax.

Basic care starts with bringing nutrition into the clinic. Outside the clinic, conduct education on how to avoid poisonous food at the supermarket. Prevention of disease continues on from there as the priority, for example in equipping the surgery diagnostic gear comes first.

Estimating the cost of equipment and staffing is challenging in part because is so depends on drawing a line between basic and high tech. Imagine us amateurs leaping into a bog of multisyllable complexities; okay then, let faith in the wholeness of the human organism be our guide.

Funding will be a problem to the extent of our dependence on banking. William Greider believes that the Federal Reserve is ruining us, and so must be re-chartered to belong to the government instead of the bond dealers. Right, and also there is strong indication that Vashon should develop a dual currency. But here’s the “personal floatation device”: we on average are paying so much for our health care that we surely will pay less for self-contained single payer. And here may be the clincher: keeping health care on-island means better exclusion of big hospital risks like mrsa.