Democratic Secrecy

Both cases that we read pertain to task forces set up by the president, both were deemed as failures, but for different reasons. Both task forces were secretive; information gathered was not made public. I did not follow the task force that was set up by Bush, but I did try to follow the health care task force that was implemented by Clinton in 1993. I have been very disappointed with medical insurance since 1983, and still have issues with it today. I remember thinking change might come when I heard of the healthcare task force, and here it is 16 years later and we still have nothing to help the everyday American family that is affordable.

When my husband died, he had our medical insurance through his employer. It was a good policy, and we paid a minimal amount of money for it each month. When he died, I lost the coverage for myself and my children, and back then there was no COBRA plan, which lets employees continue with their healthcare coverage after they are no longer employed with that company. So I tried to get healthcare privately, and I could get it for a small fortune each month, plus I could not get coverage for my daughter, who had medical issues. They would cover her, but nothing for pre-existing conditions, and in 1983 I paid over $500.00 a month for medical insurance, which was more than my mortgage on my house, was. In 2003 when I myself had medical issues, I paid $300.00 a month for medical insurance just on myself, I prepaid a few months because I was having a surgery. I had complications and other issues developed, and I exceeded my yearly maximum benefit amounts in March, I no longer had coverage, even though I was paid up through the end of May. Because I technically still had insurance, I could not get any assistance from a federal or state agency, so I had to cash out all my assets and still am faced with a huge medical debt that I can never pay off entirely.

So I really wanted to follow the task force to see if there were investigating all avenues that would help the families of people that have some sort of an illness to be able to much needed healthcare. In the article by Thompson titled “Democratic Secrecy”, almost the entire section under “Temporality: When is the Veil Lifted,” closely reveals how I feel these task forces should be handled. On page 132 Thompson writes, “The first way in which secrecy may be moderated involves its temporal dimension. We moderate the secrecy by making it temporary: lift the veil in time for citizens to judge the policy or process. The main question we should ask is: What if any democratic accountability is lost by the delay?”

I’m not suggesting that the citizens need to be told every little detail, but I do believe that we should be told enough information so that we know that they are investigating the topic from all angles and not just from one perspective, which is most likely a biased one to begin with.