D. J. Tice writes and the President will speak -- health care some more

While I still think the most important thing for health care reform is to get the matter taken completely away from employment. It seems to me that access should be a matter of citizenship instead of employment and, as a function of employment, it helps us price ourselves out of the market in too many things.

But it appears that in his speech tonight that President Obama is unlikely to go that way. Every bill which has been introduced still works off that employment model.

But whatever we hear tonight, it seems to me that D.J. Tice of the Mpls. paper is raising questions that we haven’t been hearing, by noting that most of the people who oppose a “public option” in health care [an idea to which I admit warmness] oppose education vouchers for K-12 students [to which I concede coolness], while most of the voucher-haters seem to want the public option in health care.

As I have said before, we are all pro-choice. We just aren’t all pro-choice on the same things.

There are various fields of enterprise in which there are public sector competes with private sector. K-12 education is one, but there is also higher education, package delivery, commuter trains [in some places], weather forecasting for starters. The results of these competitions vary and are certainly judged differently by different people and factions.

Public option health care and public education seem to work well in many countries, but they aren’t the only way to do things. As we consider what works for our country, maybe we should read Tice’s article and think a bit.