Poor leadership is a serious problem. I'll grant you that.
If we combine the ignorance thread, 2016 thread with voter participation numbers, this thread, and a few others we are really facing an uphill battle.
If we don't do something though the USA will continue to slide into a place we really don't want to be.
I've proposed a solution, or at least a means to a proper one in the past, but it requires thinking outside the lines and very few people are willing to do that.
The Constitution requires that Congress pass legislation, however it does not require that it be the sole means by which legislation and regulation are crafted. As I'm sure you realize special interests have long provided language which when implemented is guaranteed to give a desired result. Suppose we do something similar but not underhanded and have people who actually have the time, knowledge and expertise to create a unified, cohesive and intelligent system with the citizens health and wellbeing coming before political concerns? I don't mean the traditional conservative approach of advisement to politicians who then do whatever their personal and political goals require, but a cold objective approach to a replacement with minimal disruption. Something which is robust yet adaptable, a mechanism of accountability and continual improvement again controlled by non-politicians, but yes ultimately accountable to the people for performance.
Keep the pols and the parties as far away from good medicine as can be. No secret meetings. No "you have to enact it to see what happens". Pilots and real world testing, not some claim of superiority, but real world results with informed improvements enacted prudently.
Or would rather have the Republicans and Democrats decide your fate?
What seems best to you?
I think you ought to understand something about the health care system. There is no health care system. Instead there are lots of disconnected fragments which are "the system". That's one very important thing a unified and universally accessible database would do. Let me give you a very real and common example how this would provide material benefit.
A significant number of people are shockingly ignorant of what medications they take and why they are taking them. So someone goes to their primary provider and gets a prescription for a serious condition. Then they travel to Florida for the winter and they have a new problem or a worsening of some existing ailment. They then go into a completely different system and not knowing all that much forget something vital. That means treatment which is not optimal, is redundant, or outright bad happens due to ignorance of the complete medical history. This happens all the time. Adverse results result in expensive tests and diagnosis to reinvent the wheel, consuming much time and money. All The Time.
So... We get the NSA/DARPA to create a private net, $$$ I know, not some hack who's brother inlaw was owed a favor and got a contract, and provide layers of access appropriate to the need of the patient. Multiple biometric inputs for security or whatever is judged appropriate by the experts.
Once an established system was in place I would know what you could and could not take medication wise. Your cardiologist would know that you were receiving a treatment he wasn't aware of by an endocrinologist you forget to tell him about. The MRI you had a month ago would be accessible no matter where you were. I should think the advantages of such a system would be obvious even to non experts and it goes a whole lot further. Refinements in techniques, data mining for positive and negative outcomes, what treatment works for a particular patient population, indeed a way to understand how to improve care in ways not yet imagined all based on concrete data and analyzable by clinicians and scientists the world over. An honest to goodness system of communication and analysis and current medical history for everyone everywhere. The benefits would be incredible in every way imaginable.
So which of the wise ones in DC has proposed this?