I haven't written in quite a while. The health-care debates are essentially over, and a bill has been passed. The voices of the insurance companies and the vocal minority have won again. Real health-care reform has not occurred. President Obama has shown that he leans towards both socialism in his bailouts of the "too big to fail" corporations, and capitalists in the lack of real health-care reform (notice I didn't say Democrats and Republicans). In both cases, though, it is the taxpayers who suffer.
The President and Congress missed the opportunity to really make a change in the state of health-care in our country. The debate was upon us. It was active and alive in the minds of U.S. citizens. It was the chance to take time to look at real alternatives to the health-care mode we have had in this country for too long. Of course the health-care industry had to have their say. This is a true industry with many components from the doctors and nurses who work with the public to the administrators of health-care systems, to the insurance companies that under-insure us. Removing that system and replacing it with a government plan would be impractical and costly to business and share-holders alike. Corporate America could not take that hit in the current economic market.
I fall back to my previous thought that for socialized medicine to take hold in this country the government has to prove they can do it better. This is the only way to convert the general populace. It has to be beneficial to the individual and to society. Until that time, we remain in the corporate dominated mode of health-care we currently have. People will continue to go untreated for their illnesses. People will continue to be over-charged. People will continue to lose their life investments, their homes, their personal property. We will get it figured out some time but that time is not now.
6.06.2010
12.15.2009
Health Care Part 2
The second step is to try to understand the financials. Insurance and health care are big business. When we are thinking about this subject we need to remember that insurance companies are for-profit. That means that they are trying to make money. They have CEOs, Presidents, Vice-Presidents, all kinds of managers and supervisors, and many other employees that work to make sure that the company is profitable. In this sense they are no different from Walmart, The Home Depot, Shell Oil Company or Citigroup. The primary goal is to ensure the survival of the company. That means that they want to take more money from the insured than they will ever consider giving back in payments for health care services rendered. To that end, insurance companies like to break us up into groups based on health risk or based on our employers and set the rates they charge based on the potential use of their services. Some people have it relatively easy and some people get screwed.
Medical providers follow the same structure. There are very few non-profit medical facilities left. As time passes we see increasingly larger medical groups that buy up smaller hospitals and expand their influence to the point where we often have little choice in who will provide our medical care. In the city in which I live we have two choices of health care systems, and insurance pretty much dictates which medical chain we have to use. Then there are the medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies. Again, these are for-profit companies. The main goal is to make money. They will charge as much as the market will pay and then some for new drugs and technologies.
Now, I'm not trying to dispute capitalism here. We all have the right to work in a job or create a business that makes a profit. The problem here is that the profit comes at the expense of people's welfare and lives. I'm sure that I could search the internet and find hundreds or thousands of cases where people were denied coverage for medical procedures by their insurance companies, or who maxed out their medical benefits and ended up physically well, but financially and emotionally bankrupt over their medical concerns. The comparison here is that there is a choice involved in other transactions. When you buy a new house you can choose to spend $120k or less and get a modest house that will provide shelter for you and your family. Or you can spend $300k or better and get a house that provides more than you probably need. As long as you can afford it, it is your choice to make. But when it comes to health care we are dealing in people's lives. No one should have to make the decision of whether they can afford to go to the doctor and receive treatment. No one should have to go bankrupt and lose their home and possessions just so they can live. No one should have to ration their medications because they can't afford to take their full prescription as prescribed. These are basic quality of life issues. Capitalistic value can be placed on a car or an outfit or a house, but it should not be placed on a life.
Then there are the concerns about who pays for the medical care. Those of us who are insured feel pretty confident that if we become ill our insurance will help to defray the costs. But what about the uninsured? Who pays for their medical care? If you guessed that we do then you get an A+. If someone doesn't have insurance they tend to go to a walk-in clinic if they can afford to. If they can't, they often end up in the emergency room. Who pays for the visit? Either the Government pays or the medical facility writes the charges off. As you may well have been able to deduce, as medical facilities write off charges they have to raise their rates for all of us who have insurance. Remember, the medical facilities are in the business of making money. Somebody has to pay for the services they provide. They have to make a profit. And in the end, we pay.
So, how much do we pay? Well, I can say that I contribute a little over $1,000 dollars a year to my medical insurance. That's around 3% of my gross income. I can also say that the company I work for contributes around $2500 a year for my insurances. So that's $3500 a year. I can assure you that I do not use that much in medical services in a year, so the insurance companies are making money off of me. But I have to keep medical insurance because if I have a catastrophic illness there is no way that I would be able to pay for it on my own. Many of us are in the same situation, we and our employers overpay the insurance companies so that they can make a profit, we do not use up all of the money that is paid in.
Many people would say that insurance is a necessary evil. We have to have it in case we become seriously ill, but we don't like paying in when we reap little reward for it. One thing I didn't mention above that we have to remember is all of our copays. Even though insurance pays out to our medical providers and pays some of the cost of our medications, we still shell out additional money, maybe $20 or $30 when we go to the doctor, maybe $30 or $60 when we fill a prescription. All of that money adds up. That is money we are paying for health care outside of the current system.
So you would think that with all of that money going out to the health care industry, we here in America would have the best healthcare in the world. Well, that's a subject for the next post.
And here's your music break for the day:
Medical providers follow the same structure. There are very few non-profit medical facilities left. As time passes we see increasingly larger medical groups that buy up smaller hospitals and expand their influence to the point where we often have little choice in who will provide our medical care. In the city in which I live we have two choices of health care systems, and insurance pretty much dictates which medical chain we have to use. Then there are the medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies. Again, these are for-profit companies. The main goal is to make money. They will charge as much as the market will pay and then some for new drugs and technologies.
Now, I'm not trying to dispute capitalism here. We all have the right to work in a job or create a business that makes a profit. The problem here is that the profit comes at the expense of people's welfare and lives. I'm sure that I could search the internet and find hundreds or thousands of cases where people were denied coverage for medical procedures by their insurance companies, or who maxed out their medical benefits and ended up physically well, but financially and emotionally bankrupt over their medical concerns. The comparison here is that there is a choice involved in other transactions. When you buy a new house you can choose to spend $120k or less and get a modest house that will provide shelter for you and your family. Or you can spend $300k or better and get a house that provides more than you probably need. As long as you can afford it, it is your choice to make. But when it comes to health care we are dealing in people's lives. No one should have to make the decision of whether they can afford to go to the doctor and receive treatment. No one should have to go bankrupt and lose their home and possessions just so they can live. No one should have to ration their medications because they can't afford to take their full prescription as prescribed. These are basic quality of life issues. Capitalistic value can be placed on a car or an outfit or a house, but it should not be placed on a life.
Then there are the concerns about who pays for the medical care. Those of us who are insured feel pretty confident that if we become ill our insurance will help to defray the costs. But what about the uninsured? Who pays for their medical care? If you guessed that we do then you get an A+. If someone doesn't have insurance they tend to go to a walk-in clinic if they can afford to. If they can't, they often end up in the emergency room. Who pays for the visit? Either the Government pays or the medical facility writes the charges off. As you may well have been able to deduce, as medical facilities write off charges they have to raise their rates for all of us who have insurance. Remember, the medical facilities are in the business of making money. Somebody has to pay for the services they provide. They have to make a profit. And in the end, we pay.
So, how much do we pay? Well, I can say that I contribute a little over $1,000 dollars a year to my medical insurance. That's around 3% of my gross income. I can also say that the company I work for contributes around $2500 a year for my insurances. So that's $3500 a year. I can assure you that I do not use that much in medical services in a year, so the insurance companies are making money off of me. But I have to keep medical insurance because if I have a catastrophic illness there is no way that I would be able to pay for it on my own. Many of us are in the same situation, we and our employers overpay the insurance companies so that they can make a profit, we do not use up all of the money that is paid in.
Many people would say that insurance is a necessary evil. We have to have it in case we become seriously ill, but we don't like paying in when we reap little reward for it. One thing I didn't mention above that we have to remember is all of our copays. Even though insurance pays out to our medical providers and pays some of the cost of our medications, we still shell out additional money, maybe $20 or $30 when we go to the doctor, maybe $30 or $60 when we fill a prescription. All of that money adds up. That is money we are paying for health care outside of the current system.
So you would think that with all of that money going out to the health care industry, we here in America would have the best healthcare in the world. Well, that's a subject for the next post.
And here's your music break for the day:
11.26.2009
Healthcare Part 1
I'm not sure how many posts it is going to take to get through this issue, but we'll start here and see where we go. I'll say up front that I am not one for facts and figures. They are often interesting, but they can be manipulated to support many varied and opposing opinions. We have come to rely on "the numbers" to provide us with the information we need, for example we say 46 million Americans are uninsured, there was $81.2 billion in damages from Hurricane Katrina, there was .915% population growth in the U.S. between 2005 and 2008. All of these are interesting statistics, and they do tell a story. But statistics and numbers don't often get to the heart of the matter. Even in accounting these days, the numbers don't often add up to indicate real performance. So, don't expect a lot of numbers from me. That is not what this blog is about. This blog is about the real story.
Health care in our country is a huge issue, and President Obama is bringing it to the forefront and trying to make a difference. The concern I have is that the President will not be able to make enough changes in health care to really have a positive impact on the American people. The problem is that we have come to lack the ability to look at the real opportunities we have. Instead we take broken systems and try to tweak them a little here and a little there and hope that the outcome will be better than what we started with (Oh, and don't forget all of the influence from special interests and big business). From the information I have reviewed on the current health care debate, that is exactly what we are doing, again.
So, what is the real problem with health care as it currently exists in our country? For starters, there are millions of uninsured and under-insured individuals and families. But why should we care? I have insurance through my employer. It isn't the best insurance by far, but it is adequate for me right now. If I develop a serious illness I may have to revise that assessment, but for now, my insurance suits my needs. So, again, why should we care that there are uninsured and under-insured people in the U.S.?
Let's start with basic human rights and respect. Now, there is nothing in the Constitution that says that health care is a basic human right. In fact. ours is one of the few constitutions that doesn't have a general rights clause or amendment. Even China has a rights clause in their constitution, but that's a topic for a different post. Now, there's that "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." business in the Declaration of Independence, but nothing specific about health care in either document. I'll assume that everyone knows that our constitution is not a fixed document, in other words, we have the right and the ability to change it. Why should we change it though? Well, we've changed it in the past to include things like abolishing slavery and giving the right to vote to women and minorities just to name a few things.
As we evolve and understand that regardless of gender, skin color, oh there are so many things I could add, we come to understand that each of us is not so different from one another. We all have the right to be treated fairly and equally. And that's where the respect part comes in. If I have a friend or neighbor who is ill and needs medical care, I would like for them to receive it, regardless of whether they have health insurance or not. It's a basic respect for human life. We all have the right to live and be healthy. We all have the right to get that heart operation, cancer treatment, antibiotic, or whatever, and you may agree with me on that. The part you may not agree with is who will pay for it. Go, go to the doctor, get well, but if you don't have insurance, don't expect me to foot the bill. I have myself and my own family to take care of, why should I pay for your medical care. That is the selfish viewpoint that we hold. Survival of the fittest (just to point out-that is another evolutionary concept). If you can't take care of yourself and pay your bills, it's not my problem. The problem is that if we took that stand in all subjects, we would have anarchy. Some might like that, but it's really not a good thing. So, we must make the choice, is healthy human life worth preserving? and can we look beyond our own selfish wants and needs to recognize that everyone deserves equal and available health care? Don't think about any of the other issues concerning health care. Just think about those two questions. That is the first step.
For your entertainment, a little Groove Armada:
Health care in our country is a huge issue, and President Obama is bringing it to the forefront and trying to make a difference. The concern I have is that the President will not be able to make enough changes in health care to really have a positive impact on the American people. The problem is that we have come to lack the ability to look at the real opportunities we have. Instead we take broken systems and try to tweak them a little here and a little there and hope that the outcome will be better than what we started with (Oh, and don't forget all of the influence from special interests and big business). From the information I have reviewed on the current health care debate, that is exactly what we are doing, again.
So, what is the real problem with health care as it currently exists in our country? For starters, there are millions of uninsured and under-insured individuals and families. But why should we care? I have insurance through my employer. It isn't the best insurance by far, but it is adequate for me right now. If I develop a serious illness I may have to revise that assessment, but for now, my insurance suits my needs. So, again, why should we care that there are uninsured and under-insured people in the U.S.?
Let's start with basic human rights and respect. Now, there is nothing in the Constitution that says that health care is a basic human right. In fact. ours is one of the few constitutions that doesn't have a general rights clause or amendment. Even China has a rights clause in their constitution, but that's a topic for a different post. Now, there's that "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." business in the Declaration of Independence, but nothing specific about health care in either document. I'll assume that everyone knows that our constitution is not a fixed document, in other words, we have the right and the ability to change it. Why should we change it though? Well, we've changed it in the past to include things like abolishing slavery and giving the right to vote to women and minorities just to name a few things.
As we evolve and understand that regardless of gender, skin color, oh there are so many things I could add, we come to understand that each of us is not so different from one another. We all have the right to be treated fairly and equally. And that's where the respect part comes in. If I have a friend or neighbor who is ill and needs medical care, I would like for them to receive it, regardless of whether they have health insurance or not. It's a basic respect for human life. We all have the right to live and be healthy. We all have the right to get that heart operation, cancer treatment, antibiotic, or whatever, and you may agree with me on that. The part you may not agree with is who will pay for it. Go, go to the doctor, get well, but if you don't have insurance, don't expect me to foot the bill. I have myself and my own family to take care of, why should I pay for your medical care. That is the selfish viewpoint that we hold. Survival of the fittest (just to point out-that is another evolutionary concept). If you can't take care of yourself and pay your bills, it's not my problem. The problem is that if we took that stand in all subjects, we would have anarchy. Some might like that, but it's really not a good thing. So, we must make the choice, is healthy human life worth preserving? and can we look beyond our own selfish wants and needs to recognize that everyone deserves equal and available health care? Don't think about any of the other issues concerning health care. Just think about those two questions. That is the first step.
For your entertainment, a little Groove Armada:
11.22.2009
An Introduction
I've been debating starting this blog for quite some time now. I've gone back and forth with myself trying to decide if it was really worth it. Also, debating what my purpose was or would be for blogging.
I have been fortunate in my life to have people with whom I could hold extensive conversations about politics, current events, society, life in general basically. At the time, I'm not sure I really appreciated these conversations or the people I was holding them with as much as I do in retrospect. They have allowed me the opportunity to have intelligent conversations about myself and my thoughts and ideas, and bounce around different ideas and points of view, and really discover who I am and how I feel about this existence.
The title of this blog comes from the blog of a dear friend who blogs about current events and issues(if he gives me the go ahead, I will add a link to his blog). He was discussing politics during the last Presidential election and mentioned that Barack Obama's mother was an atheist from Kansas. There was a comment added to the post that went on to point out that I am also an atheist in Kansas. When I found out about this comment I was honored that someone who new me would point me out by name as an atheist in Kansas.
But this blog isn't about the fact that I am an atheist. This blog is about how I see things. I am not terribly concerned about anyone's religion, though I am concerned about how people use religion to justify their own thoughts and ideas. And I'm concerned about how much religion influences peoples social views and decisions. I would never be so arrogant as to say that any persons beliefs are worse or better than my own. Rather, I just want to share my thoughts, and hope that someone who reads these words may be challenged to think a little more broadly about issues that face us in this life.
Thinking broadly is the key here. I read a lot of blogs and posts to issues in other forums and I am often amazed at the discussions and arguments that ensue. A couple things I have noticed that don't sit well with me: many people argue a large issue from one simple point of view, and, it seems that most people these days have the attention span of a three year old.
Why does it matter that we look at issues from a broad point of view? Because issues affect all of us in different ways. It is important to understand the entire issue before making a judgment. It is important to see things from other people's perspectives. It is a sign of ignorance and insensitivity if we always judge an issue from the perspective of "what is best for me". Plus, the more reasons that you can share for supporting your ideas, the more likely you are to be taken seriously.
We also need to develop the ability to take the time required to think about, discuss, and intelligently make judgments on issues that affect us. Passing quick and easy judgment is a reactionary act that often gets us into more trouble than we were in to begin with.
So, what's this blog about? It's about life and the issues that we face. It's about my personal perspective. It's about making a case for thought and debate. It's about laying it all out so people can make intelligent decisions instead of knee-jerk reactions. It's about challenging ourselves to be better people.
I certainly don't have all of the the answers and all of the information for all of the questions, and I will be the first to point it out. But, hopefully, I can open a few eyes and have my own eyes opened further.
I'm going to try to add a link to a video in each post just as a little entertainment sidelight for you. Here's the first one: Janelle Monae "Many Moons"
I have been fortunate in my life to have people with whom I could hold extensive conversations about politics, current events, society, life in general basically. At the time, I'm not sure I really appreciated these conversations or the people I was holding them with as much as I do in retrospect. They have allowed me the opportunity to have intelligent conversations about myself and my thoughts and ideas, and bounce around different ideas and points of view, and really discover who I am and how I feel about this existence.
The title of this blog comes from the blog of a dear friend who blogs about current events and issues(if he gives me the go ahead, I will add a link to his blog). He was discussing politics during the last Presidential election and mentioned that Barack Obama's mother was an atheist from Kansas. There was a comment added to the post that went on to point out that I am also an atheist in Kansas. When I found out about this comment I was honored that someone who new me would point me out by name as an atheist in Kansas.
But this blog isn't about the fact that I am an atheist. This blog is about how I see things. I am not terribly concerned about anyone's religion, though I am concerned about how people use religion to justify their own thoughts and ideas. And I'm concerned about how much religion influences peoples social views and decisions. I would never be so arrogant as to say that any persons beliefs are worse or better than my own. Rather, I just want to share my thoughts, and hope that someone who reads these words may be challenged to think a little more broadly about issues that face us in this life.
Thinking broadly is the key here. I read a lot of blogs and posts to issues in other forums and I am often amazed at the discussions and arguments that ensue. A couple things I have noticed that don't sit well with me: many people argue a large issue from one simple point of view, and, it seems that most people these days have the attention span of a three year old.
Why does it matter that we look at issues from a broad point of view? Because issues affect all of us in different ways. It is important to understand the entire issue before making a judgment. It is important to see things from other people's perspectives. It is a sign of ignorance and insensitivity if we always judge an issue from the perspective of "what is best for me". Plus, the more reasons that you can share for supporting your ideas, the more likely you are to be taken seriously.
We also need to develop the ability to take the time required to think about, discuss, and intelligently make judgments on issues that affect us. Passing quick and easy judgment is a reactionary act that often gets us into more trouble than we were in to begin with.
So, what's this blog about? It's about life and the issues that we face. It's about my personal perspective. It's about making a case for thought and debate. It's about laying it all out so people can make intelligent decisions instead of knee-jerk reactions. It's about challenging ourselves to be better people.
I certainly don't have all of the the answers and all of the information for all of the questions, and I will be the first to point it out. But, hopefully, I can open a few eyes and have my own eyes opened further.
I'm going to try to add a link to a video in each post just as a little entertainment sidelight for you. Here's the first one: Janelle Monae "Many Moons"
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