The Many Myths Of Healthcare
Read Time:6 Minute, 5 Second
by Bill Formby
This is a follow up to my prior post on Shills, Barkers, and Patsies, but it is prompted more by the way that the Republicans are dodging around the truths about their healthcare plan.
First, let me say that I am not an expert on health insurance but I am not stupid either. I have been on this earth for almost three-quarters of a century and have been around insurance dealings for at least a half of a century. There is no magic to it because people have to be realistic when presented with basic facts about healthcare insurance.
Reality check: insurance companies do not exist to make everyone’s life easier. They exist to make money for their shareholders or owners, not John Q. Public. If they did not make money they would not be in business. So, the idea that there is such a thing as free market health insurance that works for everyone is just not true, it is a myth. Only in America would that even be tried because of the capitalistic nature of our economy. No other developed nation has a situation in which one has to be wealthy to stay healthy, or at least have some type of employer based program that pays for one’s health care. Yeah, I know. I stole that line from Bernie Sanders but he is right. Under the proposed legislation by the Republicans those who make the least amount of money will be one case of the flu from bankruptcy or worse.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was not perfect either so the Democrats really have nothing to crow about. The only way health insurance could ever work is a single payer program in which every person is covered from cradle to grave. The ACA let people buy their way out of the program which screwed up the pool of people covered. For example, younger people, it is assumed, will not use their healthcare as much as older people. But, we need the people who do not use the healthcare insurance in the program to balance out the others who do use it. The alternative is what the Republicans are doing which is to let the insurance companies draw up risk pools and charge them according to their estimated use. Thus, young people may have a low premium for their risk pool but the older people will be paying as much as five times as much as the younger people.
Read: Leadership: How Does Trump Stack Up?
Reality Check: most older Americans will not be able to afford their healthcare insurance before they get to Medicare and that will be their next target. The argument that the free market will create competition and hold premiums down is a myth. Any insurance company can operate in any state they choose once they get licensed to do business there by the state’s insurance board. Most companies simply choose not to try to compete in all fifty states. Trump’s idea that there will be an insurance company bloodbath as they fight for your premium dollars is another one of his fairy tales. He also said he was going to build a wall and Mexico was going to pay for it. The Republicans have one thing in mind and that is to take the government out of people’s lives, which some people may say is not that bad except that someone has to protect the people from the greed that exists in this country.
A singular point in the Republican proposal is the slashing and capping of Medicaid. This is frightening when one thinks about it. What do we do with the people who are cut off Medicaid and start dying on us because they can not afford health care nor insurance. The tax rebates for most of these people is a joke because they make so little money they really never have to pay taxes. I clearly understand the importance of Medicaid because my mother had to have it for nursing home care. Mom, passed away several years ago, had Alzheimer’s and required 24/7 care. Medicare does not cover nursing homes for more than 30 days but Medicaid does pick up there. Without the Medicaid what do these people do, just die?
Another point is that the Republican proposal is cutting out mental health and drug rehabilitation programs. Right now the leading cause of accidental deaths in America is overdosing on prescription medication, primarily opiates. While Trump has been ranting about drugs coming across the border he has not even mentioned the fact that the big pharmacy companies are shipping far more drugs out into the country than will ever cross the border. In one report regarding the problem in Southern West Virginia a single pharmacy received over six million hydrocodone pills over a three year period. The problem actually exists now all over the country as doctors are writing prescriptions for pain medications now on a fairly regular basis. The irony of this that as the death toll rises with this problem the Republicans are taking away the tools to save lives by not funding the treatment centers.
There are difficult choices that have to be made about healthcare in America. We are the wealthiest nation on earth and yet we have people in this country who are dying from lack of decent healthcare. There are those people who likely believe that the poor are not deserving of any assistance at all. It certainly is not unusual in Alabama to hear people criticize “welfare babies” or so called “welfare queens”. Those are some of the nicer comments people use as they are going to or leaving church, it gets much worse in the bars and clubs. What most people do not realize is that most of them, under this Republican proposal, are going to get hit right between the eyes as well. A lot of them will not understand what I am saying until they have that one accident, or one illness that puts them in the welfare line.
Read: Why Paul Ryan Is No Republican?
I had a stent put in one of my arteries a year ago that I did not even know I needed. I had a 90% blockage in that artery. Without Medicare and my retirement insurance I could not have afforded the operation. The cost of the surgeon alone was $33,000.00. One never really knows about one’s health until often it is too late. I feel like I was lucky that I have a good doctor and I was able, under Medicare, to have an annual physical.
So, in conclusion, those who prefer to think that they want the government to stay out of their lives need to remember that there is a cost to civilization. Most of the civilized world figured that out long before we came along. It is a balancing act between freedom and safety. Freedom is not free, nor is it worth much if one is not safe and healthy. While the Republicans may try to convince me that the rich built this country I will never believe them. Working people built this country to be what it is and now the wealthy people are trying to take it away from them.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
No it doesn’t but you see, we also have our opinions provided to us free of charge by the best propagandists in the world. We want to watch our loved ones die because we can’t afford $100,000 for a simple operation of a million for cancer treatment and we really feel good about paying thousands for a pill that cost 14 cents to make. It’s called FREEDOM!
Yeah, you have to wonder about the price of freedom and who pays the most. It was never meant to be bought with dollars but that is the way it has turned out.
I don’t understand how so many of you yanks don’t want your health care provided to you, plus regulated, by the government. Why would you want to pay for it? Don’t make a lot of sense does it?
No it really doesn’t. It would take far more time and space than we have here to explain how people so easily misconstrued what was best of intentions. Suffice to say that either the leaders who allegedly founded the country just did not foresee the country having such a bunch of idiots that could be manipulated so easily with the “free market” idea or the “minimum government control”. Conceptually, they believed that the intent was to reject everything about the countries from which the vast majority of Americans came. Where most all of the European countries grew into their systems of government America set up an instant government. As anyone knows, the one that is built over time is always better than the instant variety. You know, sort of like cooking. Mom’s home cooking that took hours and hours to prepare is always better than something you pull out of a box and nuke.
We are no longer the top of the heap when it comes to health care, although we do have some fine surgeons, and our research is cutting edge. You just have to have money, and lots of it to access the system. That’s just fucked up.
I agree Timmy. After I watched the CNN special on Bangkok I started checking out various places and there are a number of places where they provide health care as good as, and in some cases better, than the leading places in this country. The differences are that while the so called free market is supposed to assure the best care at the best prices it will not do that as long as we have the insurance companies involved. That is an extra level of cost and profit that has to be accounted for. The hospital in Bangkok has one of the best reputations in the world. The hospital looks like a 5 star hotel and is a model of efficiency. Each floor of the hospital have its on labs and they get their test results out in an hour. Most all of their doctors have post doctorate training and they used cutting edge technology to get the best results.
We absolutely need universal health care, and the press needs to spend more time debunking the long held republican view that those countries that have it, hate it. That’s right wing propaganda and there’s not a grain of truth to it. Ask anyone who lives in Canada, or the UK, if they want to give up their healthcare, and they will laugh at you, like they laugh while shaking their heads over the mess America’s healthcare is in.
I agree Mike. The right wingers talk about how Canadians come here for their health needs and that is good, I guess, if they can afford it. However, there is a boatload of Americans who are going to places like Bangkok, Thailand and into Malaysia for their health care needs because the cost is so much less than here in the states. Morgan Spurlock did a special on the problem with health insurance in America and how the insurance companies actually contributed to the high cost of health care. He was trying to get an MRI done on his shoulder but no one could, or would, simply quote him a price. They kept telling him it depended on his health insurance. He made an appointment with the hospital in Bangkok and everything was priced upfront. No insurance, just a cash transaction. While he was there he got his MRI, was shown physical therapy exercises for his shoulder, and got a complete thorough physical including a colonoscopy and blood work. His total cost, including travel was about $13,000. That is about a third of what it would cost in the states. The hospital and staff were all top notch people. WHile he was there he met another American that had open heart surgery there. It had cost him about $25,000. I can compare this to my surgery which was to simply put a stent in where the surgeon alone billed at $33,000. According to a number of reports tens of thousands of Americans are participating in medical tourism. Another thing is that a lot of Americans are retiring out of the country and these countries can attract American retirees which good healthcare at a good cost. Whereas, in America is fighting to keep immigrants out many of the poorer countries are trying to attract Americans to their countries because they have guaranteed incomes.