Despite all the pundits claiming this is a Republican year due to misteps by the Obama Adminstration, I am worried. In 2012 Obama carried the women's vote by 10%. That was enough to win the election coast to coast. Women are half the voters. Republicans do poorly with young voters, and that can be fatal. As the seniors die off, the young voters take their places and if they are all democrats, we can kiss the GOP goodby.
Let's talk about women voters first. The Republicans need to get off the pro-life thing. For every pro-life voter we gain, we lose a young woman who fears getting pregnant and not being able to stop it. The party needs to stop backing all those little laws that chip away at abortion. The party doesn't need to switch over to a pro-choice stance, it just needs to stop talking about it. The ardent pro-life people will whine and cry, but in the end they will vote Republican. And a lot of younger women will too.
Health Care is a top issue with women, they are the caregivers who take the children to the pediatrician. Unlike men, women are more likely to go to the doctor when something hurts. Men are more apt to just tough it out, not wanting to loose pay or appear soft. So healthcare counts, big time with women. Obamacare is disliked by the majority of voters. But the Republicans have not offered an Obamacare replacement, probably because they cannot agree on what it ought to be. And Republican leadership has failed to get the party together on a plan, probably fearing that whatever they propose the media will savage them on it.
We ought to propose freedom for insurance companies. Any insurance company licensed to do business by any state in the union, is free to sell insurance in all fifty states. Right now, to sell insurance you have to get a license from the state you are selling in. To jump thru fifty sets of paperwork hoops to get licensed in fifty different states is beyond any company. So a lot of states, like New Hampshire, only have ONE insurance company doing business in the state. And, monopoly leads to price gouging. Voters would love the idea. Insurance companies hate it. Insurance companies don't vote.
We ought to propose freedom to import drugs. Any drug approved by the health authorities of decent first world countries (Canada, England, France, Germany, and some others) may be imported duty free and sold by drug stores. This would drop the price of prescription drugs a lot. Voters would love the idea. Drug companies hate the idea. Drug companies don't vote.
We need to clamp down on malpractice suits. Right now every doctor has to pay $100,000 a year for malpractice insurance, unless he wants to be sued into poverty. This is largely a matter of state law. Up here in New Hampshire we did something about malpractice which cut the rate in half. Other states could do likewise. Voters are OK with this idea. Lawyers hate it. Although lawyers can vote, there aren't all that many of them.
We need to scrap the regulations that force gold plating of medical facilities. For instance at Dartmouth Hitchkok the main building is topped by a gigantic row of air conditioners. Turns out, regulations require the hospital to hold temperature to 72 degrees plus or minus ONE degree. which is ridiculous, in addition to ridiculously expensive.
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