Word: systemic
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While most of the marijuana is freshly cut and drying on a clothesline stretched across the room, pots of smaller plants still months away from maturing line the walls. An irrigation system supplies water and chemical fertilizers to the plants via a hose that runs into the adjacent bathroom, where the toxic brew used to accelerate plants' growth is dumped down a drain...
...Sometimes I get a little frustrated," Barack Obama admitted to AARP in late July, "because this is one of those situations where it's so obvious that the system we have isn't working well for too many people, and that we could just be doing better." He was talking about health care, of course. As Washington collapsed toward its August recess, the President's reform efforts were looking distinctly iffy, even though he is absolutely right about the need for change. The system is a fiscal mess, the king of all budget busters. It is also a moral mess...
...Obama has made in shaping the health-care debate. Since most people like the health care they have, the President has been forced to say, "If you like the health care you have, you can keep it." But it is difficult to enact substantive reforms when 80% of the system stays the same. The need for simplicity has also forced Obama to stick with - indeed, to double down on - the current practice of having employers provide health insurance. This is the weakest, most illogical part of the system. It is difficult to sustain in a global economy where American corporations...
...Obama has said he is open to malpractice reform, but congressional Democrats haven't included it in their bills because trial lawyers are a major Democratic special-interest group. Another Democratic interest group, organized labor, has blocked the most logical and progressive way to fund a universal health-care system - eliminating the tax exclusion on health benefits and replacing it with a progressive tax credit. The health-care exclusion is, at approximately $250 billion, the single biggest tax break in the federal code. The problem is that unions have negotiated generous health packages over the years. According to Senator Stabenow...
...insurers would have to accept all comers, including those with pre-existing conditions, at the same rates - is a distinct possibility. Expanded coverage, perhaps including the parents of children eligible for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), is also probable. Most important for long-term reform, a system of health-care superstores - the wonks call them "exchanges" or "co-ops" - where individuals and small businesses can go to buy a plan, could be included...