The Leak Under the Sink

This past weekend was the third installment of "the leak under the sink," an issue I had called a professional repairman to fix (didn't work) and then surely 'fixed' myself last week. Not so. Turns out that all the parts below the sink are interconnected. Simply remounting the disposal that inexplicably fell last weekend wasn't enough. The drain the disposal connected to had a problem, and the pipes and their fittings had all been disturbed by last week's trauma in measurable ways. Measurable, that is, in ounces of water that had accumulated in the under-sink cabinet. Hmm.

Have you already guessed that I might see this as an analogy for the health care system? Without a setup that contains the entire flow, we end up with a trickle, a leak, and ultimately a mess that someone's going to have to clean up or pay to clean up. Attending to one part doesn't get the entire thing to perform right. It sure as heck matters how much water flows in and what's going down the drain with it. Each piece has to be able to deal with what's thrown at it.

Once something does happen, I learned the hard way that it is a whole lot better to take the entire system completely apart, examine the flaws, and then start all over again - some new parts, some old, some different - to build a system that meets the current need and keeps me from coming back in the future to do it again (like next weekend).

Next time you're thinking about health care reform, remember my leak under the sink.