I've got big plans to break down current proposed health care reform legislation and make it palatable to the average American, who would rather not wade through hundreds of pages of legalese... this, however, is still in the works. But I did want to set the stage for discussion on health care by bringing up a point that I feel is lost in the current debate taking place. Keep in mind that this is a moral argument, not a practical one.
Can we all step back a moment and look at our health care system with fresh eyes? I think that everyone - Democrat, Republican, independent, and apathetic alike - can manage this, but it truly does take a stretching of the imagination. It is exceedingly difficult to detach oneself from the constant media onslaught (both wanted and unwanted) that penetrates the psyche via television, newspapers, Facebook, Twitter, and is then recycled via word-of-mouth.
But imagine that you had no preconceptions of how health care in this country should function... how would you set it up? Now, we don't live in a moralistic society, though some would like to pretend we do when it suits their political purposes (more on that later). So let us be practical in our aspirations for establishing our brand-new, first-ever health care system. Lets go with the assumption that at least a slight majority of Americans don't really trust the government (I think that's a safe bet) and that being a capitalistic, free-market economy, we're more comfortable with creating some private health insurance companies... Done.
These companies need workers, they have overhead to pay, and of course, they have to pay the medical bills for all their consumers. They hire some brilliant mathematicians and actuaries and find out what they need to charge their customers to stay financially viable. Sounds pretty reasonable to establish rates that will bring in at least a bit of profit.
So why is it that health insurance companies have, on average, increased premiums by 87% in the past six years, while profits from the 10 largest publicly-traded companies has risen 428% between 2000 and 2007. Why have the over 400 corporate mergers involving health insurance companies in the past 13 years, that have resulted in 94% of insurance markets becoming highly-concentrated (re: near monopoly), according to the American Medical Association, been allowed to take place? Mergers resulting in an anti-competitive marketplace where companies can thrive and shareholders can demand that profits continue to increase doesn't sound like free-market America.
So I ask, why is it that we allow insurance companies to be publicly traded at all? Stepping back to our newly-created health insurance company scenario, why can't this company function at a level where it earns steady, moderate profits? Why do we have to introduce investors to an industry that has the power decide between life and death? Why do we resist reforming a system that is set up to reward those who deny medical coverage to sick people? Shareholders in any company want to see employees cut costs and increase profits... cutting costs in the health insurance industry means killing human beings. Perhaps that seems like a harsh statement, but perhaps most of the people working at these companies are too far removed to truly grasp the consequences of their actions... Wendell Potter would agree.
An estimated 18,000 people die every year because they do not have health insurance. And while that may not be the cause of death listed on their death certificate, it is certainly the reason. Living without health insurance is the socio-economic equivalent of living with the AIDS virus. No one dies of AIDS, they die because AIDS has so utterly destroyed their immune system that opportunistic infections, be they pneumonia, tuberculosis, any other number of ailments can kill them almost instantly. People without health insurance are some of the most vulnerable. When you know a simple visit to the dentist for a toothache, or a trip to the ER to have a dislocated shoulder properly set, is far beyond your means, you simply don't go.
This is why our health care system is as costly as it is. Anyone working in the health care field (and most people with a little common sense) will agree that preventative care is the cheapest, most efficient way to keep our country healthy. When 46 million people don't have that option, things get awfully expensive.
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