I’m feeling particularly sad lately. Sad and exhausted. Not just physically, but emotionally too. There is so much anger everywhere. Everyone is angry at someone or something and I just can’t take it anymore. Which is strange, because I’m generally very good with anger. I’m considering disappearing for a long, long while.
I can’t watch television or read online, because all I see are people protesting healthcare reform. I see people carrying fucking assault rifles at protest rallies where the president is going to speak. I hear about fucking death panels that don’t exist anywhere but in fucking private insurance companies. As if an insurance company doesn’t already stand between you and the care you need. As if those companies are perfectly free to deny coverage for chemo or transplants or drugs that aren’t on their fucking formulary. As if they can’t legally dump you just because you had the nerve to use your policy.
Here’s the thing — we can’t fire our insurance companies. In theory, we could. In theory, we could all go out and get private coverage that we pay for on our own. Unless we have a pre-existing condition. Unless we happen to be beyond the acceptable BMI measurements. Unless we have a family history of high blood pressure or cancer or heart problems or anything really, even if we currently are perfectly healthy. Unless we happen to be a smoker. Unless we happen to have had a serious illness in the past, even if that illness is completely cured now. Unless the fucking insurance company didn’t like the color of our goddamn eyes. And if we do manage, somehow, to get a policy? The cost is insane. In order to actually afford coverage, you have to accept deductibles that are so high, you may as well not have any insurance at all. $5,000 deductible? Are you kidding me? That’s fucking insane.
So, MOST of us can’t fire our insurance company and hire another one. So what do we do? We’re stuck at jobs that barely pay enough to cover the bills, but we can’t move on to something better because we’d lose our health insurance. And we can’t risk that, not when we have diabetes or high blood pressure or chronic pain or any reoccurring health issue. We can’t risk that if we have children who could get sick at any moment.
A government sponsored public option? That’s a great idea, because we fucking CAN fire the politicians that put it together if we don’t like what they’re doing. We CAN exercise some degree of control of over what gets into the option, by virtue of electing people that will honestly represent us. Sure, a lot of politicians are creepy and crooked. So we vote them out. We fire them and we hire someone new. And we keep firing and hiring until they get the damned message and do what we want.
Plus, a government option will force private insurance to be fucking competitive for once. I don’t want private insurance to go out of business. I want them to REFORM and actually COVER THEIR CLIENTS when they get sick. If I buy a private policy (and I probably would, even with a public option available, as would most people who could afford it. Because a private policy pushes you to the front of the line and we all want that.)I’m going to buy one that actually delivers on what it says it will. That won’t cancel me because I get sick and need to use it. Who won’t deny me necessary surgeries or therapies. And why will they be competitive? Because the fucking Public Option will force them to compete. It will force them to work for their clients, it will force them to offer coverage beyond what people could get for free. It would force them to fucking insure people, not just take their money, deny their claims and then drop them.
I know a lot of people are worried that all their taxes will be taken and given to people who ‘don’t work or nothing’, but I say: this benefits you too. Yes, you have your private insurance. Yes, you have your savings and you’ve done everything you’re supposed to do to have a nice, safe, stable life and family. That’s great, it really is and I’m happy for you. But all that won’t protect you from a serious car accident or a cancer diagnosis or heart attack or drug resistant infection. It just won’t. And that private insurance you have? It has the right to drop you, cold turkey. It has the right to refuse to pay any claim. It has the right to insist that bone marrow transplants are experimental medicine and not the tested treatment they actually are. And even if your insurance pays all the claims, doesn’t drop you and doesn’t increase your premiums, you still have to pay the 10 or 20 or 30 percent of the bill that’s your responsibility. Depending on how badly you’re injured or how bad your diagnosis, that amount can wreck you. It can wreck you despite all your savings, despite all your private insurance, despite all the right things you’ve done. And you shouldn’t have lose everything just because you got sick. You shouldn’t have to mortgage your home or raid your kid’s college fund because some idiot drunk driver hit you and put you in the hospital for a month. You shouldn’t have to file bankruptcy and ruin your credit because you were unlucky. No one thinks it can happen to them, but half of the bankruptcies file in this country are due to medical expenses. No one should have to lose everything they’ve worked their whole lives for because their insurance company bails on them or the coverage they could afford just wasn’t enough.
I won’t say that some people won’t abuse the system. I’m not idealistic or naive. I realize that there are people in our country that do, genuinely, do nothing and just ride along on the government train. So what? So what if a few people get one over on the government? There are nearly 50 million people in our country with no fucking healthcare at all. There are millions of children who can’t see the doctor when they get an ear infection. There are millions of women who can’t get prenatal care. There are millions of people who can’t see a doctor, so they go to work sick and infect their coworkers. That does not have to be the case. No child has to die from an untreated tooth infection. Our emergency rooms do not have to be overwhelmed with minor health problems when they should be focusing on genuine emergencies. And no one has to die on the emergency room floor from an illness that could have been treated and cured, if only they had been able to afford to go see a fucking doctor when they initially got sick.
All obama will do is outsource anyways. Just think about the all the lobbyists flocking to Washington DC because of obama’s reckless over-spending of $2 TRILLION in just 6 months, which alone is increasing the National Debt by 20%.
Politicians take people’s money and reward the large corporations, in this case companies in the health care industry, since they have the money to more effectively lobby politicians. In the end smaller businesses will be hurt.
Politicians will only reward companies that will be in their best political interest. Honestly, when can you really trust politicians since they are basically professional liars, and being president just means you are the best liar of the time. Why not just give the money directly from the people to the companies and take politicians in government out of the equation?
obama is going to recklessly spend TRILLIONS of tax payers’ money just to give insurance to about 25% of those who do not have it. Over 50% of people’s income go towards taxes, just imagine how many more people will afford health care insurance if their income is almost doubled because of dramatic tax cuts.
Competition is what is needed. It lowers prices of products and services, along with developing new innovations. All of which will benefit consumers. You need to remember that monopolistic tendencies can also apply to government.
The reason why the cost of insurance is high is because politicians in government mandate insurance companies to increase their premiums to pay for ridiculous things. In addition, politicians put up regulations so that Americans are not allowed to get insurance from another state and use the coverage in their own state. This reduces competition making it more expensive for people to get insurance. On top of that medical professionals are not allowed to freely practice their profession in any US state without taking a long and tedious licensing process. This again increases the cost of medical insurance.
In the end, the problem with most economic issues is too much government intervention of the economy by politicians, who will only tend to do things for political self interest. Just like how obama nationalized GM to pander to its unions. Politicians can barely run government, yet people think they can run a multi-national auto manufacturing company?
The solution is SMALLER government, LESS spending, and LOWER taxes.
Comment by Sammy — August 19, 2009 @ 10:30 am |
Sammy, I think you have some good points here. I don’t see why doctors couldn’t take one, general, liscening test that would allow them to practice in multiple states. I do think there would have to be a standardization of liscensing requirements to do that, as well as centralizing of the agency that tracks malpractice, etc. to prevent a doctor from committing something henious in one state and moving to another — which they can do now anyway, which really pisses me off. So yes, I can see how that would be an excellent idea. And I don’t know why health insurance cannot be purchases to work across state lines. I know that MY insurance covers me if I cross state lines, but that may be because it’s from a national company with in-network provides all over the place. Still, that would all require centralizing and standardizing. I’m not oppossed to that at all, though I’m certain there are plenty of lobbiest who are.
Here’s the thing: people currently give their money directly to the insurance companies and those companies are free to drop them or deny them coverage at any time. If we could find a way to reform the system we have now, so that companies were not allowed to drop clients when they actually use the services they’ve paid for, I’m all for it. If we could find a way to insurance that people with pre-existing conditions could be gauranteed coverage, I’d be all for it. If it were possible to reform the industry that exists, I’m for it.
The problem is, the companies do not want reform. They do not want to do anything that might cut into their profit margin. Look, I want companies to make a profit. I want companies to be successful. Successful companies create jobs and jobs create wealth and more wealth across society creates a stronger, healthier society. But if those companies will not reform on their own and the government sees it’s citizenry suffering, it has a responsiblity to do something about it. We can’t force the insurance companies to reform, but we can offer citizens a different option.
Trust me, I’m pissed as hell about the fucking bail-out. I’m more pissed that there weren’t regulation in place, and enforced, to prevent this whole disaster in the first place. The idea that the Market is going to take care of itself is clearly not correct. The Market is going to devour the weak if left unregulated. The weak in this case = the non-wealthy. And the non-wealthy = pretty much fucking everyone.
What you’re missing here is that national healthcare wouldn’t just cover those that currently do not have insurance. It would cover anyone that, for whatever reason, loses the coverage they have now. And that 50% you’re currently spending for health insurance? You wouldn’t be spending that much anymore. It wouldn’t take 50% of every employees paycheck to fund national healthcare. Spreading the cost across the billions of taxpayers in this country could actually free up more of your money for you to spend how you wanted. And yes, I know politicians are all bastards, but so are the insurance company execs. It’s a case of the lesser of two evils and the public option at least covers EVERYONE, no exceptions. Which means when your private insurance drops you, (and believe me, mine would because I have a chronic illness) you don’t have to sicken or die because you can’t find another policy.
If there were some other structure in place to administer a national healthcare plan, I’d be all for that. I’m not married to the idea of the government running healthcare. I am committed to the idea that EVERYONE in this country deserves basic healthcare coverage. It can be done, for significantly less that we’re all paying for coverage now, but it can only be done if the insurance companies are willing to accept a smaller profit and submit to additional regulation. Or if we create a completely different system that competes with the insurance industry. I’m open to either option.
I would LOVE a more efficient government. If that means it gets smaller, great! I don’t really care about the size of the government, I care about the actions. I’d LOVE the government to get out of our private lives. I’d LOVE a government that takes the tax money it gets now and streamlines its spending. Get rid of unnecessary programs and fund programs that actually fucking help ALL of it’s citizens.
Since I can’t see an end to taxes anytime soon, I want that money spent on programs that actually make the country and it’s citizens stronger and more productive. How does that get done? It starts with an informed citizenry that doesn’t sit on the sidelines and let the fuckers get away with this crap.
I can respect not wanting the government to run healthcare. I don’t think there’s another option at the moment, however, if we want universal coverage. Gods know, I don’t like paying taxes. I’m about to get married, so I’m going up a few brackets next year and I really don’t look forward to that. However, as much as the idea of being totally independant and not relying on the government for anything is appealing, it’s also unrealistic. (Me, I like roads and sewage drains and cops and firefighters, etc.) There are certain things a government should do and one of them is provide for the health and safety of their citizens. And yes, I think healthcare is a safety issue. All we need for an epidemic to wipe out this country is a few people to catch some mutated flu virus and not be able to afford to see a doctor and we’re doomed. A public option that provides opportunites for free vaccinations puts up a big wall against that possiblity. (It is, of course, possible that we’ll get an epidemic anyway despite our best attempts to avoid it. That’s no reason not to provide the care and make the attempt. It’s unlikely that we’re going to face enemy troops on our own soil, but we have the National Guard anyway.)
I HATE the wasteful spending we’ve seen over the last 8 or 9 years. It makes me want to scream. The only way to put a halt to that is to put pressure on our representatives now and to evict the ones who don’t listen at the next election. If we could get the services we need for lower taxes, I’d be happy. But I don’t really mind paying taxes when I’m getting decent services in return. It’s all the fucking waste that pisses me off.
Comment by Zan — August 19, 2009 @ 11:25 am |
The town meeting wasn’t very pleasant, Zan… not at all:
Health Care Town Meeting in Travelers Rest, SC
Comment by DaisyDeadhead — August 19, 2009 @ 3:21 pm |
Haha smaller government, lower taxes, competition. That’s a child’s response – not uncoincidentally, also the neoliberal BS Republicans and Democrats have both been spouting since Reagan. Please, don’t make us have to *do anything* or *be responsible* or just *suck it up with slight tax increases* for the greater good.
Private business never really has to be particularly accountable to its customers cos hey competition go elsewhere, and the thing is? Health care is too important to be put into a marketplace where the bottom line *always* wins over people’s health. Governments don’t need to run it for a profit, just to break even. That means *more* resources for health care providers, not less.
I’ve also lived in a country (Australia) where this *doesn’t* happen, not remotely, where you don’t have to fight your insurance provider for care, where “pre-authorisation” isn’t even a word. Oh and guess what? Americans on average pay FOUR TIMES the amount for health care per year and get worse care.
Only government at this point has the resources, the ability to make the US have a remotely functioning health care system, and not the joke that it currently is to the rest of the developed world.
Comment by queen emily — August 21, 2009 @ 10:20 pm |