Republicans threaten us with Big Government run even more amok. Democrats regale us with stories of the little guy crushed by giant insensitive insurers. It’s easy to frighten us with big bureaucracies – public or private – because they so often fail. They have to create overarching rules that by their very nature don’t have much flexibility in them for individual cases. That’s what the words ‘big bureaucracies’ mean.

But America is a big country. Get used to it. We have to devise some sort of health care system that works – one that covers all Americans and doesn’t hold the ordinary taxpayer and voter hostage to the needs of some interest group or bureaucracy.

Once again, the debate on either side is not serving this need. It’s time for the Republicans to own up that private insurers are not going to step up and serve the country and its population as we need them to do. They’ve had plenty of time to try, and they’ve used that time to cherry-pick the healthiest citizens and deny legitimate claims to people who subsequently suffer and die.

It’s not a pretty record.

And, it’s time for the Democrats to admit that Medicare/Medicaid is not a panacea and the United States Government has a terrible track record in trying to administer anything to all its citizens.

Also not a pretty record.

France seems to be able to get health care done, and so does the Netherlands. Why are we so stupid?

To be a civilized country means to secure some basic rights for its citizens, and to extend some basic services. Lately, we’ve spent so much money on the Iraq War that apparently we’ve had nothing left over for things that we should have been doing all along.

We’ve also spent our political will in the same way, it seems.

It’s time to spend our money and will on the right things, and that begins with some sort of universal health care system. Public-private partnerships are tough to work out, but when they are worked out they often serve people well. It’s time for people of good will to come to the aid of their country and sort out a health care system for all.