When an ambulance crew arrives on the scene of an accident, and the victim is in a bad way, the general expectation is that the crew will know how to stabilize the victim and start the person on the long road to recovery. So why is it that when our health care system is in a bad way, the ambulance crew that arrives on the scene can do nothing more than argue, posture and dither?

American businesses are hemorrhaging from the cost of health care and their employees are offered less care for a higher cost. Bottom lines are being squeezed and business is doing what it can to hold up its end of the social compact. Don’t we have a right to expect that our elected officials will do more than pontificate and stamp their feet demanding ‘their way or the highway’? Vermont can and should be proud that our entire delegation has carried themselves with dignity and with our best interests at heart. Surely there are provisions in the many bills floating around that they like and other provisions that they don’t. Each one has compromised and collaborated in the hopes of getting a bill passed that will stabilize the situation and offer hope for the future. If the rest of the Congress followed this lead and demonstrated those same Vermont values of common sense and working for the common good, we might actually move towards affordable health care for all.

Just this morning former Vermont State Senator Jim Leddy dropped by the Chamber office to discuss some ideas that he and others have to level out the costs of health care in Vermont. Sure, there are parts to it that left me scratching my head and others that were very intriguing. For his part, Jim acknowledged that some ideas might have to change. What made me happy and proud to be a Vermonter was that he was still out there trying to find a solution, coming up with ideas and willing to engage in a constructive dialogue to find common ground. We agreed to keep talking, to looking for points of agreement and to keep the conversation civil. No pouting, no shouting, no histrionic diatribes ranted before a television crew ---- just dialogue.

There’s always hope when people agree to keep talking.