Washington. Joe Wilson. Reform.
All are focuses of the health care debate and all are more or less insignificant for Arizona at the moment. We don’t live in D.C., Joe Wilson is not our representative and reform is an abstract term with little meaning at present.
But the problem is still staring our state right in the face. Nineteen percent of Arizonans lack health insurance, according to U.S. Census data. Ten thousand working parents will lose their insurance at the end of this month because of state budget cuts, according to The Arizona Republic.
Arizona, like the country, is not immune to health care problems, rampant malpractice suits and rates of the insured that are lower than they should be. But Arizona could potentially have an easier time fixing the issue locally.
Health care reform is certainly a national issue, but as we have seen, lawmakers in Congress can talk about the issue for years without willingness to implement these untested reforms across the country.
Waiting for national programs to take effect is all well and good, but what is preventing states from taking action in the short run?
States could serve as testing grounds for various health care policies.
That’s not to say that states and their residents should be guinea pigs, but they are a good place to start reform that can easily be mirrored by the nation.
It’s kind of like sampling gelato flavors before you order a whole cup. You figure out which flavors are the best and taste good together, plus you get to use the colorful mini spoons.
Allowing states to implement health care reforms locally before mandating national programs is almost the same thing (although, the cool spoons are unfortunately left out of the picture). A massive, untested health care reform plan, if it failed, has the ability to do irreparable damage to our already battle-scarred national economy.
States are a good place to test some of the policies being presented in Congress and could lend credence to some of them by providing what they all seem to lack — real, numeric data that would show what works and what doesn’t.
Blue states would likely lean toward liberal policies and red states would take up more conservative policies. Arizona, which many pundits say is trending toward becoming a purple state, would have to find policies that lie in between.
Arizona has an opportunity to become a state with excellent health care programs, and could be a good testing ground for a policy that could work nationwide. It is already home to premier medical facilities such as ASU’s nursing school, UA’s medical school, a Mayo Clinic hospital and the Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Arizona politicians already have proposals in the works. Rep. Phil Lopes, D-Tucson, has been a major proponent of universal health care programs. Republicans have supported proposals that would not limit health care choices. There are options on the table — they just need to be put into action.
Some issues are just too important to sit around and wait for an out-of-touch Congress to fix from thousands of miles away. And when it comes to Arizona’s health care problems, we trust Arizonans to have the best ideas about how to fix them.
Maybe we could teach Congress a thing or two.
