Thought Press.

The upcoming Presidential election has got some big issues, one of which is America’s health care problem. But Daniel Brook makes a good point in Good Magazine:

“… it’s puzzling that when the presidential candidates talk about their health-care proposals, they only talk about poor kids and Wal-Mart workers. This doesn’t square with my experience of the health-care crisis. I know plenty of people who are sweating health-care coverage. None of them are poor kids. And they don’t work at Wal-Mart.”

The US has a pretty low self-employment rate compared to other countries and what is holding freelancers, artists, creative folk, and other people back from pursuing their own businesses, asks Brooks? Health care. Or lack thereof. Now think about countries with universal health care. Health care is not an obstacle to self-employment. Politicians need to stop focusing on the Wal-Mart workers, and pay attention to everyone whose dreams may be barred because of something that should be a universal right.

“Lately, Americans have come to think of the governmental safety net as being not for the ambitious but for people who can’t take care of themselves—like poor kids. But the metaphor “safety net” comes from the piece of circus equipment that lets the trapeze artist attempt his or her most daring feats.
It’s time the proverbial trapeze artists among us spoke up. And time the candidates listened.”

>> Read Daniel Brook’s full article here.