Analogies help us understand and appreciate that which is almost beyond words, beyond adequate description. That which is complicated. A good comparison, simile or metaphor can help us connect the dots.
 
Which is why I was interested in Secretary Michael Leavitt’s use of analogy in his health care debate with Senator Tom Daschle yesterday (at the AmericaSpeakOn debate at the National Press Club). We certainly need analogies to help us understand and solve this frustratingly complicated area of public policy.
 
Leavitt challenged the audience to think about whether health care is more like food or national defense/security in two critical ways:
 
1)    All three (health care, food and security) are basic human needs;
2)    All are areas in which the government is bound to get involved – and must decide to what extent they will be involved..
 
Secretary Leavitt feels that health care is closer to being like food – we all need it and our government is traditionally loathe to let anyone in this great nation go hungry.
 
This is an excellent point, and the analogy is helpful. But I’m not sure it provided me with the clarity I seek on exactly what should be done to decrease the cost and increase the quality of health care in America.
 
Thoughts from readers? Which comparison is most true from your perspective, and why?
 
Also try this one: I have always thought that the health-care challenge, politically and legislatively, is most like the education challenge. We spend more on education than other countries, just like we do on health care, yet don’t have the best results. We feel, collectively, that all children are entitled to an education – yet we are forever troubled by the shortcomings of our public school system. Similarly, we feel no one should be denied medical treatment, yet are tied in knots over issues of access, affordability and quality.
 
Can one basic approach solve these similar policy challenges? Or can our more-successful-by-comparison approaches to other basic needs – like security or food – serve as our guide?

Jean Card has been a professional writer in Washington, D.C. for more than a dozen years. After serving for several years as the top writer for one of the country’s top business associations, she spent half a dozen years as a cabinet-level speechwriter (at the Departments of Justice, Treasury and Labor) and then as a communications consultant with a boutique PR firm. Today, she is freelance writing and consulting, full-time.