George Lakoff on the Languaging of the “Healthcare Debate”

George Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC Berkeley, has made big contributions to those of us who have struggled to make sense of the linguistic gulf between right and left, progressive and conservative, and the often profoundly effective capacity of the right to defeat apparently intelligent initiatives mounted on the “left.” Here he asks how, after running such an effective presidential campaign, the new President has stumbled so badly with his number one policy concern, healthcare.

Read it here.

Robert Reich’s Political Perspective on the Mess

Friday night the Huffington Post published Robert Reich’s comments on the political positioning of the 6 Senators who are playing such a large role in the conversation about “healthcare reform.” I recommend reading the short piece.

Bob Franza’s take on the healthcare mess

Ok. It has been a long time since I posted here. Sorry to be away.

We have been busy attempting to start this new company, and it has been far more difficult than we had expected. The mess produced by the national discussion about “healthcare reform” – read healthcare insurance reform – has paralyzed developmental and innovation initiatives across the country, and we are entangled in it. Anything that is not following a traditional path or that has not been already demonstrated to the satisfaction of the general observer is stopped cold.

The following is the text of a note posted yesterday on the White House Contact Page by Dr. Robert Franza, CEO of Sustainable CyberLearning of Seattle, formerly of the Seattle Science Foundation and the man who convened the study group that invented the CareCyte innovations.

Dear Mr President,

In your radio address today you state – “This was the moment we built a health care system worthy of the nation and the people we love.”

Mr President, you have equated establishing “health care worthy of the nation and the people we love” with reforming health insurance.  Unfortunately, providing insurance is only a portion of the challenge.  You have yet to address the inadequate health care infrastructure and delivery system – a problem vastly larger than inadequate medical record management and access to affordable insurance.

Fortunately you have citizens who know how to solve both issues and what is remarkable is that you can eliminate all the policy speak, beltway spin salad that has characterized much of your White House messaging the past several months by doing two things:

1. Unequivocally and persistently until it is passed – Support Rep. Weiner’s amendment to replace Division A of HR 3200 with the text of HR 676, the “U.S. National Health Care Act,” sponsored by Rep. John Conyers. This would effectively transform HR 3200 into single-payer legislation – exactly what Americans need and exactly what you need to get out in front of the growing chorus of those questioning your commitment to sign a law that delivers to all Americans that which Medicare, for 44 years, has efficiently delivered to some Americans.  Thanks to the cogency of Rep. Conyers original bill, the resulting legislation will actually be something that most Americans could read and understand;

2. Give me a call – seriously.  During the past three years my colleagues and I in Seattle have devised a realistic, readily implemented, modern health care infrastructure.  We have been trying to inform you for the past two months of how that health care infrastructure can be accomplished, the jobs it will create, and the exportable US products it will generate, and the enormous waste it will eliminate while providing ALL Americans access to safe health CARE.  By the way, Sir, legislation is not needed to advance our plan – you have adequate funds available via your 2009 ARRA to launch.

Mr. President you can jump in front of all the distractions and simply demand passage of the Weiner (Conyers) amended HR 3200, and use it as the blueprint during reconciliation with whatever comes out of the Senate to provide Americans access to a competitive and proven health insurance plan.

Mr. President you can call us and we will explain to you how you can then do for our health care infrastructure what FDR did for provisioning access to electricity (TVA, BPA) and logistics (Liberty Ships) and truly transform not only the quality of health CARE in America, but create a new and sustainable manufacturing sector, jobs, and high quality exportable US products.

Yes. We. Will.

Thank you,

Bob

In his point #2, Bob is referencing a proposal for a new national mid-level healthcare infrastructure for the country that will accomplish the apparently irreconcilable objectives of lowering costs, making healthcare more accessible, and increasing quality, all at the same time. We have proposed the actions to the White House through Washington State Congressional Representatives. If you are interested in seeing our proposal, drop me a note at “info@carecyte.com” with your email address and I will send you a copy.

Best,

Chauncey