Monday, September 22, 2008

Health "Care" in America

I am sick of people complaining about our health care system. Here's why. We do not have a health care "system" in this country. We have a health care industry. I'll be happy to complain about that and you're welcome to join me.

One of the dumbest concepts that anyone has ever come up with is that we are all health care "consumers" and wish to be treated as such. The people who pimp for this misbegotten notion are generally the people in the health care industry itself or those in Washington who get a lot of money from this industry. Which means, basically, everyone except maybe Dennis Kucinich.

When things are crummy and you're looking for someone to blame, by all means don't point a finger at the fact that you spent three weeks on the phone with seventeen different people to find out that you're completely covered for everything that didn't happen to you but not the thing that did happen. And then next week when the other thing happens to you you'll find out that you were covered for that, except for the long list of exceptions, at least one of which applies to you.

And don't point the finger at the fact that somebody had to be paid to be on the phone with you for three weeks. And to file the reports. And to review your case to make sure that they denied every goddamn penny that they could. Which is usually most of it.

No, the problem appears to be that we don't have enough "choice". We like choice. Who doesn't?

We spend a gargantuan amount of money in this country for fairly average health care. And that's only for those who actually receive it. We won't get started on those who don't. But even those who do get nothing but aggravation. We always end up paying a lot for services, even after we've paid our monthly premiums, our co-pays, our deductibles and god knows what else. I swear, insurance is the biggest legal racket this country has ever seen.

Read this pile of crap from John McCain. He blows a whole pile of words talking about how health care needs to improve but he never once mentions the reason it costs so much. It's not complicated. It's administrative costs. Cut out the middleman and everything costs less. Cut out the heartless bastards whose sole purpose it is to deny treatment and things will cost less and we will be healthier and happier. Let doctors spend more time being doctors and less time figuring out what's covered and what isn't and what forms they have to fill out and they'll be able to service us all better.

Or, if you're McCain, we should do this.

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
Ha ha! That's awesome. $700 billion to bail out Wall Street, please. But even freer markets for health care. What could go wrong? This alone should disqualify this man from being president.

We're about to spend a gazillion dollars to socialize Wall Street's debts (but never its profits) but once anybody suggests that single-payer health care is the way to go we hear howls of protest that we're turning into the Soviet Union on a stick and we simply cannot have that. Europe is bad, don't you know that? They're all, like, happy over there and stuff. We're Americans! Personal responsibility! The government can't run anything!

We have socialized fire protection, socialized police protection, socialized roads and a socialized military. We don't shop for an army. And we don't shop for cops when we're getting mugged. We just expect one to show up. We don't give a rat's petoot who it is as long as they've got a badge and a can of whoop-ass. So why on earth should we be expected to shop for something like health care? I'll tell ya. So someone can make a buck. Or a trillion.

It is immoral for corporations to make millions on (denying) health care. The health care industry deserves to die a swift death. It can't happen a moment too soon.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Amen to everything you said. Senator Bernie Sanders also had a great quote:

"For years now, they’ve told us that we can’t afford that the government providing healthcare to all people is just unimaginable; it can’t be done. We don’t have the money to rebuild our infrastructure. We don’t have the money to wipe out poverty. We can’t do it. But all of a sudden, yeah, we do have $700 billion for a bailout of Wall Street."

Kizz said...

Love both of those quotes. Might have to stitch them on a sampler and send them to the jackass in Arkansas who just told me that he's voting McCain because Obama isn't going to keep America safe from terrorists and can't I see how much safer we are 7 years after 9/11. My entire face exploded, I couldn't see to write a response.

Mrs. Chili said...

Yep. To all of it - just yep.

MAB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MAB said...

Thanks for the amens, all.

Kizz, I went over to Mrs. C's and took on the jackass himself. (I'm assuming this was who you were talking about.) He's not so bad. He's just really really wrong, in my humble opinion.

Ali, I love love love Bernie Sanders. He's the only one of our elected representatives (and I'm including the HOR, the Senate and the executive branch in that) that has the guts to call himself a socialist and explain why this is not a dirty word. I admire this to no end. Only in Vermont.

Kizz said...

I noticed that you, as usual, had my back and I appreciate it immensely. I no longer think of him as a jackass but as a serious danger to the well being of everyone around him. The gist of his "what I support" list was "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out." It's all very well and good that he's a pleasant, gentle dude now but how long until any one of us become the person he feels is an "immediate danger" to his family, community or country? Not long I suspect, not long at all.

I'd also like him to bring his "gun in every hand" plan here to NYC. We've got a bit of a jump on that wish, at least in my neighborhood. I don't think the reality looks the way he thinks it looks.

Aaaaaaaaand.....as you can see I'm still a little worked up. Feeling a ton of the despair and rage one can get during elections. Sigh.