A reluctant "yes" on Measure 101

Sisters voters should hold their nose and vote "yes" on Measure 101.

Measure 101 would approve temporary assessments - a tax - on insurance companies, some hospitals and other providers of insurance and healthcare coverage to help cover healthcare for low-income families and children and people with disabilities.

This is a lousy way to make policy and a lousy way to provide health care coverage. It's nothing more than using duct tape and binder twine to patch up a broken and failing system. It's tempting to just say "Enough!" and stop trying to put patches on this worn-out system and insist upon a real fix. But there are real people's lives at stake, and it's hard to justify putting the heaviest burden of fixing our healthcare system on those least equipped to bear it.

It's true, as has been famously noted, that healthcare is "complicated." Americans used to be known for figuring out how to do complicated, difficult and challenging things. Now there are many nations in the world - democratic nations with market economies - who have healthcare systems that are much less expensive than ours and deliver better outcomes.

At some point, we're going to have to decide whether a great nation ought to have a great healthcare system or if we're just going to limp along in Jed Clampett's jalopy with a roll of duct tape handy.

For now, vote yes on Measure 101.

Jim Cornelius, Editor