Community Health Care System

There is no fixing the current health care system because it isn't broken; however, the health care system can be refocused to provide more appropriate health care services to a much wider client base than this country has ever served, from the very wealthy to the very poor. We have all the huge big box buildings sitting idle in communities across the nation, buildings that could be repurposed into a system of Community Health Care Clinics operated by the federal government through a retooled Community Health Care System.

Just as many military bases use the Civil Service system in an adjunct capacity to support the branches of the military, the government could establish a "civil service" structure to provide offices, support services, and medical professionals managed by a Community Health Care System with a fixed salary basis and both merit and longevity advancement opportunities available to those who choose a career in federal medical professions. These Community Health Care Clinics can be phased in as "mandated" health care providers for the far too many people who are currently clogging both the Urgent Care and the Emergency Room facilities that are designed to provide care for critical patients. The Community Health Care Clinics can provide free care for routine prenatal patients, for well-baby care, for routine physicals and exams required for both the educational system and most employers: vaccinations, basic diagnostic testing, seasonal disease treatment, and other non-emergency, non-critical, routine family medical care.

Extending the concept, promising high school graduates and/or college students could be educated on the government dime, similar to the way military personnel go through both basic training and then specialized schools to prepare them to perform military duties. An obligation of 4-6 years, again mirroring the military system, can be required for all program graduates as payment for their education/training. For those who thrive in a government job, advancement through a salary schedule can be an attractive incentive to stay within the system and make the Community Health Care System one's career, especially if that system is nationwide so a person can relocate to other geographical areas, as well as a variety of cultural communities.

The problem is not the current health care system, but the people who use it in place of common sense and home remedies for the most basic common occurrences, such as colds, flu, ear aches, minor burns and wounds that simply do not require the use of either an Urgent Care facility or an Emergency Room. My annual asthma check-ups can be done in a Community Health Care Clinic, freeing up my specialist to see patients with lung cancer and other major medical issues. Ditto my Type II Diabetes, which requires managed care and maintenance that can be handled by a Community Health Care Clinic. I am currently paying a monthly insurance payment of $561 just in case something happens and I have a medical emergency and/or condition that requires a higher level of intervention and care. Meanwhile, I see my doctor annually to check my asthma, my diabetes, and my general health and pay $6732 for that one visit.

We have come to the other side of President Kennedy's coin, the President who challenged my generation to ask what I could do for my country: our current President seems determined to focus his presidency on what else the country can do for its people, and he wants me to pay for it for those who cannot/will not pay for it themselves. I disagree with the "free" philosophy because I believe that what we get for free we not only come to expect as our due, but what we work for, we value, appreciate, and care for. However, if this president is determined to provide health care for all at the expense of some, then think outside the broken box and see how else that mission can be accomplished. Work within the current system to improve it, to repurpose it to fit the ways that citizens have come to expect the system to work.

Just as President Kennedy's legacy includes the Peace Corps, President Obama's legacy can become the Medical Corps. If we cannot change the people's perception about the health care system, perhaps we can adjust the system to accommodate their use of it.