Two German Policy Ideas For The 2020 Field

As of almost the end of February, it looks like over 30 Democrats are in the presidential race or are at least considering it. As the candidates put together their platforms, every one is in some fashion or another talking about health care, climate change, income inequality, and of course terrible management and crazy positions of the current White House resident.

As the race proceeds, Democratic candidates will be honing their positions to put more “meat on the bones.” Over the next few weeks/months, I hope to give some suggestions as to what I think might be a few good ideas. Here, I will offer input into two that have been talked about.

Healthcare

The first is healthcare. Positions run the gamut from wanting to fix Obamacare over to Medicare for all.  A few days ago, Jamie Daw, professor of health policy at Columbia, wrote a piece in the New York Times that I think should be examined closely by our candidates.

Much of the discussion of America’s healthcare issues reference Canada as an excellent model to follow. The professor says a much better model is what Germany has done. She states that their “model ensures that all citizens have access to affordable healthcare, but it also incorporates age old American values of choice and private competition in health insurance.”

Under the German model, citizens have access to over 1,000 non-profit companies called “sickness funds.” The system is funded by progressive taxation and is similar to our Medicare/Medicaid programs. Overall costs of healthcare are substantially less in Germany then here and out of pocket costs are limited to 2% or less of household income.

While I doubt any system is totally perfect, I would urge candidates to look carefully at the German healthcare model as it might prove less onerous to those in opposition, and at the end of the day, legislation will need consensus if change is to be accomplished.

Employee Say In Board Of Directors

The second issue I think would make better business practices for American corporations is a proposal put forth by Elizabeth Warren. She has a number of positions out already in her campaign, but one that fascinates me is a rule to have employees elect 40% of a company’s Board of Directors.

Interestingly, this practice known as co-determination is a defining feature of the German economy. If it were implemented here, it would give employees greater input into company management and could possibly raise employee wages. I am beginning to think America could learn a lot from Germany.

For more information on Warren’s ideas I would refer to the February issue of the Washington Spectator.

My final suggestion regarding the upcoming election is for Democrat candidates to “keep your cool” and use lots of fact-checkers on your Republican opponents, especially the current White House resident. This next election will be a knock-down event and Trump will do every thing known to man to get under our candidates skin.

Best wishes to everyone on the Democratic side of the aisle.

by Dick Goodson
Posted 2/25/19