Where do we want to end up at?

Is our country on the right track? Questions like these are often correlated with those that I ask myself when I want to see if I’m going in the right direction with my career or if I’m making the right decision when faced with a tough dilemma. I ask myself ‘Where do I want to end up at?’ and ‘What am I doing now to get there?’ So to answer the first question, I’d have to do a quick analysis on a couple of the most hotly debated topics: healthcare and the economy.

Healthcare

Q: What does the ideal healthcare system look like to me?

A: I have good coverage at a reasonable price.

As it so happens, I have decent coverage through my husband’s employer, the U.S. Army. It works for me and I currently don’t have anything about it that I would like to see changed. My healthcare works for me. However, I’m considered pretty “healthy”. I exercise regularly and am generally nutritious, so I represent a demographic that is not dependent on any necessary medication or healthcare. So I don’t have any issues with my healthcare because I don’t really require anything out of the ordinary. It works for me, but that’s not the case for everyone else. So,

New Answer: Everyone has the ability to receive good coverage at a reasonable price.

Q: Where are we now?

A: I’ve seen the following scenarios all too often lately. Someone has health insurance, but when they need it, it doesn’t come through for them. Claims get denied or downgraded in available options for when treatment is needed. Or someone doesn’t have health insurance because they can’t afford it and then something happens and they end up with an exorbitant bill. Will healthcare reform fix this? If it addresses what I think is a major part of the core problem, which is the insurance companies who decide the premiums and packages, then it would be on the right track. But with the public option off the table, I’m left wondering like many other Americans, will this healthcare reform have a positive affect on me?

Economy

Q: What does the ideal economy look like to me?

A: More jobs. Fair wages. Do away with corrupt financial institutional practices.

Q: Where are we now?

A: While in the technical sense, economists will state that we are out of the recession, from a everyday person’s point of view it may not feel like that. However, I think more people are hopeful of the future. I’m hearing less stories of my friends being laid off and more of them finding paid work. Are things still rough? Heck yah. Scouring through craigslist and other job sites, I’m finding that the wages offered are a fraction of what I would have earned a couple of years ago. We’ve dug a really deep hole for ourselves and it’s going to take a while for us to get back on our feet. But we’re not down for the count. The verdict is still out though for whether or not we can fix Wall Street.

So is our country on the right track? Despite all the controversy regarding healthcare, we are at a much better place than we were when the stock market crashed at the end of 2008. I like Lisa McLeod’s article on ‘How Obama Can Solve Healthcare in 90 Days,’ but wonder if that’s really possible and if getting a bipartisan healthcare reform passed is even realistic. But if we can keep the focus on getting America back to work, this year can definitely put us back on the right track.

-Rae is a blogger for The Daily Vine. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.