Three-step plan

To fairly sort out the kind of health care Americans deserve, Congress needs to do three things.

First, they should sunset their current personal health care coverage immediately. This will put them in the same boat with millions of their fellow citizens and reset their dysfunctional moral compasses.

Second, Congress should slice up the total health care benefit pie into equal portions, one slice for each of us, and take – not the first piece – but the last piece of the pie. This will keep them fair.

Third, each member of Congress spins the Wheel of Medical Misfortune and lives with the benefits they’ve provided for us all.

The Wheel of Medical Misfortune is divided thusly: excellent health, a common cold, a broken leg, prostate or breast cancer, suicidal clinical depression, chronic migraines, malignant melanoma, an incurable brain tumor, pre-existing myasthenia gravis, heart disease, alcoholism, psoriasis, four broken teeth, type I diabetes and a closed head injury.

Congress can do this, but won’t – which is why we need a moral debate, not a policy one. Until it begins, America’s social contract for what is fair, equitable and just in how we live and die will remain broken.

Paul Quinnett

Cheney