Many opponents of the Affordable Care Act fear that it will turn into single-payer, government-run health care.
We have an example of such a system — the Veterans Affairs health system. Care is pretty good if you get it.
But there’s a better way.
Give veterans vouchers that can be used in the private health care market. And downsize the VA system to focus in specialties that affect veterans, such as dealing with PTSD.
A proposed bill in Congress makes a start by providing $10 billion in emergency money to provide private care for veterans with long waits or who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility.
This bill is a refreshing example of compromise in Congress with an independent senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, working with a Republican congressman from Florida’s Panhandle, Jeff Miller.
The VA is a generous system. As noted in a Wall Street Journal editorial, the VA doesn’t charge premiums, immunizations and screenings are free and co-pays are negligible.
Under the VA scenario, it’s low cost and high quality while access is limited.
It is distressing that Republicans who criticize Obamacare don’t see their fears played out in front of them in the VA system.
Downsize the VA into a center of excellence for illnesses directly related to military service.
And provide more vouchers to introduce competition.
CORPORATE TAX REFORM
Here are two more good ideas that are going nowhere in Washington:
■ Reducing the corporate tax rates.
■ Getting rid of corporate tax exemptions.
Both ideas would likely return cash and jobs to America.
But nothing is being done to follow through on them.
Here’s the latest example why we must act: An American company that has purchased an Irish company and will move its corporate headquarters overseas.
The U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent while Ireland’s rate is 12.5 percent.
America needs jobs.
So let’s provide more incentives for corporations to invest here.
ZOMBIE ‘FACTS’ WON’T DIE
They are called “zombie facts,” erroneous statements that can’t be killed, because they’re spread everywhere by the Internet.
One terrible example is linked to the erroneous belief that vaccinations are unsafe.
As a result, there is a resurgence in childhood diseases that had been eradicated.
Measles, for instance, once caused more than 400 deaths annually. But with widespread use of vaccinations, measles had virtually disappeared in the U.S.
In the last five years, however, there have been 16 outbreaks and almost 500 reported cases of measles, reports The New York Times.
In nearly every instance, a person caught it overseas and spread it in the U.S. to people who had not been vaccinated.
Why aren’t people getting vaccinated? Zombie facts.
A discredited report in the British Journal The Lancet purported to find a link between the measles vaccine and an intestinal disorder for autism.
The Lancet later retracted the study.
A little information can be a dangerous thing, especially when it is clearly wrong.
Do drivers of expensive cars act entitled on the road? Are they more likely to cut you off? Or jump lines?
Yes — and a study done in California confirms it.
Researchers watched a four-way stop. They noticed that eight in 10 drivers did the right thing. But they found that drivers of more expensive cars were more likely to jump their turn. They also were likely to barge through crosswalks with pedestrians present.
In contrast, drivers of beat-up cars never drove through the crosswalk with a pedestrian present.
Good manners obviously can’t be purchased.
EDUCATE THEM, DON’T KICK THEM OUT
The United States has the best university system in the world. By far.
So why do we educate talented foreigners and then make it impossible for them to stay here? It makes no sense when you consider these facts:
■ Foreign-born people make up about 20 percent of the nation’s workers in science, technology, engineering and math fields; 40 percent with advanced degrees.
■ One quarter of U.S. high technology firms established since 1995 have had at least one foreign-born founder, reports The Wall Street Journal.
■ Immigrants or their children founded 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies.
These workers aren’t taking American jobs.
They are creating them.
The nation’s immigration policies need to be expanded to allow more Green Cards for advanced degrees that are in high demand.
Homesteading is a great American tradition. It has been used to encourage people to move into open spaces in former days or to needy places in more modern times.
Now the governor of Michigan has proposed an innovative way to homestead by offering highly skilled immigrants a chance to move to Detroit without going through the laborious visa process.
Why not expand this nationally?
Why not lift all green card restrictions for highly skilled immigrants who agree to move into needy communities like Jacksonville’s Northwest community?
This is a take-off on a Republican idea and it plays into America’s traditions of offering opportunities to newcomers.
It would be a win-win.