Keller @ Large: Our Leaders' Handling Of Health Care Is Pathetic And Disgraceful

BOSTON (CBS) - As President Trump put it a few days ago in his inimitable, born-on-third-base-and-thought-he-hit-a-triple way, "nobody knew health care could be so complicated."

English translation: everybody knew that except me.

And health care is complicated, a web of often conflicting institutions and interests overseeing a system driven to distraction by rapidly evolving technology, the sheer volume of money involved, and the uniquely emotional nature of the services being delivered.

Definitely more complicated than deciding which kind of marble to use for the golf course men's room sink.

Then again, the underlying issues of health care reform are quite simple, as simple as two of the four freedoms FDR outlined in his 1941 State of the Union Speech: freedom from want and freedom from fear.

In order to live, we need the basics - food, water, shelter and our health. If we as a society are indifferent to the sight of people going without the basics, then we're not worth much.

And if you've never been sick a day in your life or seen a loved one struggle with ill health, perhaps it's hard to understand the fear that brings, magnified a thousand-fold for those afraid they could never afford to treat what ails them.

The idea that the alleged leaders of our country can't find fair and decent ways to help provide those freedoms, or even work across party lines to try to do so, is pathetic and disgraceful.

Complicated problems, it seems, require problem-solvers with brains – and heart.

And we have a longstanding shortage of them.

Listen to Jon's commentary: