Lately I've been thinking about health care as a right. We don't tend to think of health care as a "right," but is it? Should it be?
What if we had to have insurance just in case someone mugged us and we had to call a cop? What if the cops charged $200 processing fee and $150 an hour for their time? What if Detectives cost an extra $300 an hour because of their expertise? What if people went broke from the cost of a police response? That never happens, because we long ago decided that we wanted personal safety to be an automatic right. We all pay the police (not enough, by the way) to look after us. There is no additional cost.
OH NO! SOCIALIZED POLICE FORCE!!! I can't believe they got this past us. You mean the public pays for everyone to be safe and free from crime? What kind of crap is that??? You should have insurance that pays in the event you need a police visit. For security, we should just hire private security firms to protect our houses and families. I can't believe they got that one past us...
By the way, did you know the term "Socialized Medicine" was developed by a PR firm back in the 40's? This is a documented fact. Source: http://www.slate.com/id/2175477/ See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialized_medicine or just google it yourself.
Then president Harry Truman, seen by history as one of the most industrious, hard working and honorable men to ever sit the Oval Office, was making a go of health care reform. His opponents, the insurance interests, the pharmaceutical interests, and various other groups that were profiting from inflating costs, began using the term "Socialized Medicine" as a way of villifying attempts to cut out the insurance interests and let the public pay directly for health costs. In that McCarthy-era battlefield, the slur won out.
People continued to pay into a system that milked the many to pay high costs for the few. A system that made sure if you were not getting milked, you were getting #@&$'d!
Let me just say it now. Insurance is a parasitic enterprise. Its supposed purpose is to take the resources of many and use it to help the few who need it. Instead, by making every cost accessible to every American, it ensures that costs will continue to rise. As the costs rise, insurance premiums rise. This is always the case with parasites. The host suffers in a downward spiral.
How many times have you heard some pundit talking about the "Mysterious, continuous climb in health care costs?" How many decades in a row has health care cost outstripped inflation? Three? Four? Come on... Truman was fighting this sixty years ago.
I say we reject the rhetoric. I am one of those Americans who has no health insurance. I'm a teacher. My insurance charges over $800 a month to insure my family. As a one-income family, we simply cannot afford it. Yet I make little enough as a teacher that my kids are covered by public health care for children. All I can say is, "Thank God for public health care for my kids," and... "I hope nothing happens to me."
I guess its easier to be 'socialistic' for kids... they're just so cute, how can you resist?
Speaking of 'socialized medicine,' the most popular health care system in American history is Medicare/Medicaid. No politician dares threaten them. Why? Because people love them, and because they work so good!
Can we stop falling prey to the stupid 'socialized medicine' propaganda and just think about what we, as Americans, decide our inalienable rights to be? I think the definition of what those rights are will shift throughout our history, with changes in technology, theology, and philosophy. All we have to do is decide that health is an American right, and the whole debate changes. The slur "Socialized Medicine" becomes as ridiculous as "Socialized Police" or "Socialized Mail Delivery." Once we decide we want to live in a society where health is considered an inalienable right, then the only question is how. This is still a big, daunting question, but at least one that can be approached intelligently once the fear tactics are left behind.
Other countries do not have it figured out, either. They continue to debate and change and try to find a way to provide care for everyone. Interestingly, as they debate how to improve their systems, they all agree that they want to avoid a corporate pay-for-service system like America's. They are in universal agreement on that point. We are the only developed country on the planet that does not consider health care a right of our citizens. That is a sad fact, in my opinion.
So, before we debate the kind of health care we support, let's answer the more fundamental question of rights. If we decide that we want to have the right to health care, no matter what our station in life, or what our personal situation is, then let's move forward from that point. I think having clarity on that one issue will help focus the debate. I also think we need to acknowledge that insurance is the key reason for soaring health care costs. Insurance skews the free market by artificially inflating the consumer's ability to pay for certain services, while at the same time removing the consumer from the actual purchase. Normal market forces are bypassed, allowing for out of control inflation.
The solution?
You tell me.
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Nice opening analogy. You are correct, insurance inflates the prices and doesn't allow for a free market to operate. America's doctors are paid much more than most other doctors around the globe. While requiring all to have insurance would not lower costs, offering a public option at a much lower cost should. There was no way Insurance companies were going to sit the sidelines and allow a cheaper option (significantly cheaper option) to come into the marketplace. Tons of money went into media campaigns and lobbyists to convince the public that it was socialistic. Unfortunately the herds of americans bought into the propaganda--Even small business, which shocked me. Insurance is one of the biggest stifles to growing a business and creating jobs.
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