Please forgive me as I deviate from the standard spiel about taking the train to school and what my kids are doing and belabor you with politics and policies. I've been thinking about the health care system (or lack thereof) in America lately, and, though no one but my friends will read this, will write briefly about it.
I want to begin by pointing out that the corporations that sell health insurance have the sweetest plum in the health care business. Who gets sick? The people who usually get sick are the young (insured by SCHIP - a government program), the old (insured by Medicare - a government program), and the poor (insured by Medicaid - a government program). Furthermore, if you happen to get so sick that you can't work, and you lose your job, you lose your insurance and the government has to pick up the tab. See a pattern here? If it's not profitable to sell you insurance, because you might get sick, the government has to provide for you.
Many people are afraid of 'the government' telling them what kind of health care they can access. "I don't want some bureaucrat in Washington...." Instead, what people have are the actuaries in the insurance companies authorizing and denying access to care. If you happen to want a really expensive procedure that might save your life, you better check the spreadsheet first.
The term 'Health Insurance' is a misnomer anyway. People with health insurance aren't insured against catastrophic medical costs. In fact, if you have catastrophic medical costs, it's in the corporations best interest to make sure you bear as much of those costs as possible. The corporations that are good at sticking you with the bill grow and thrive, those corporations that aren't get bought out.
Given the epidemic of under-insured people, and the obvious lack of insurance provided by the insurance corporations, we need to change the nomenclature. We should begin calling these corporations Health Care Distribution Companies.
Because that's what they are. You can get the procedures, visits with specialists, and medicine that your Health Care Distribution Company authorizes.
4 comments:
All semantics aside, the fact that a doctor is prevented from abiding by the Hippocratic Oath because of insurance companies - who are only in it for the money - is what makes the current system so despicable to me.
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I hear you, Spamball. Unlikely that the system will change though. Even the Democrats' "universal healthcare" proposals keep the insurance companies in the drivers' seats.
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