Worst Election

Mostly, I don't get into politics on this blog, though occasionally, I'll relate some personal experience with "Healthcare Reform" like HERE and HERE. However, our latest midterm elections reminded me of something attributed to Winston Churchill. Namely:

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

We shall see how things work over the next two years in our democracy. For the Republicans:

• I'd like to see them remove the "threshold" for the deduction of medical expenses on one's income tax. The threshold is so high that few qualify to take it. Perhaps, instead of all the "subsidy" stuff emphasis on this, income tax credits might be a less bureaucratic approach. I don't know, I'm not a politician, nor do I play one on TV.
• I'd also like to see them amend the "bathroom" rule (see the first link) so cyclists aren't penalized. That never had anything to do with healthcare reform in the first place.
• I'd like to see medical insurance run for full years without "one size fits all" signups at the end of each calendar year. It seems to me that most states are able to handle license tabs this way and, though I am eligible because of a qualifying "life event," hardly any of the insurance companies really want to deal with anything out of the norm. Things are automated enough now that the "calendar year" stuff is a relic of the 20th Century.
• I've now had a bit of experience with what insurance companies set up before "pre-existing" conditions were banned, Congress needs to realize that complete repeal is not really a solution, especially after the inevitable repeal gesture is vetoed. Some sort of mandate is, unfortunately, required if pre-existing conditions are not allowed to cripple coverage. Otherwise, insurance companies will act to maximize their return and minimize their risk exposure. As they did up until the end of 2013.

To be fair, I also have a few requests for Obama and the many Democrats that remain in Congress:

• Mostly, they are the same requests as for the Republicans.
• Also that they float some REAL proposals for reform of the law that the Republicans can get behind. I'd like to see some of those made public. Well, made public sometime after Christmas. I'd rather not have Fox and MSNBC endlessly blathering on about this during the Holiday season.

Perhaps, with some serious bipartisan effort, we can pare the law down to something under a thousand pages. At least we can hope for some change.