Fight the Fight

Lately I’m just so frustrated with so much surrounding politics.  I’m both frustrated with the politicians on all levels, but also the public for being narrow minded, shortsighted, and generally uninformed.

I understand the supposed reason for a two party system, but it’s f—ed up to the point of dividing our nation based on incorrect information on both sides (propaganda is there on all sides people).  I’ve been seeing too much blindly taking inaccurate claims to be fact.  Living in a society with so much free information makes it harder for some to see through the haze of agenda.  It’s just what the political parties and special interests are counting on.

Recently, the hot topic is the health care debate.  My personal perspective is complicated, and much of it hasn’t been represented to my personal satisfaction.  That’s right, I’ll take the power back and blog.  Time to bust out some bullet points…

Socialized health care already exists in America

• Medicare
• Medicaid
• VA
• Prison

Compared to other industrialized countries (who all have national health care):

• We have higher infant mortality rates than industrialized countries – sometimes by as much as 50%
• American life expectancy is less than most industrialized countries – even the cheese and wine culture of France lives for 3 more years than us

Am I advocating any of the current plans? No.  There are problems with them because of the back and fourth nature of our partisan system that’s more concerned with painting the other party in a negative light than doing their f—ing jobs.  That and the special interests have already had a go at slanting any legislation currently considered.

What I do know is that doing nothing is more costly in dollars and lives in the short and long term.

My personal experience is such that I have doctors and other health care professionals in my family.  I know how good our system can be, which is pretty damn good.  We have some of the best doctors and institutions in the world (i.e. Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, etc.).

Despite that, I also know how messed up our system is it is thanks to many things.  Basic statistics show that our system isn’t that good based on big things like infant mortality and life expectancy among a few (I bet we have the lowest rate of erectile dysfunction though).  Starting my own business and also having family and friends with health problems shows how bad the insurance industry and state regulations are.  I’ve seen doctors in public afraid to administer emergency care because of malpractice insurance concerns.  There are a lot of problems.

I fall on the side that something needs to be done for the good of society as a whole.  I see the failure as a result of bureaucracy on three fronts: hospitals, malpractice insurance, and general health care insurance.  All three represent corporate profit interests, and reforming one at a time will do no good to a system already costing too much money and too many lives.

Our crown jewels of health care (i.e. Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, etc.) are protected by referral and acceptance policy like every other national system.  But we don’t vilify them for those practices despite being kinda socialist in nature.  Our insurance companies decide what is and what isn’t covered – doesn’t that make them a practitioner of death panels or socialist principle on some level?  Does that mean we’re fine with out insurance coverage the way it is, or just happy to have any in the first place?

What always seems to be forgotten?  No matter what, there will always be extra services available to those willing to pay for it.  It happens everywhere, and it would be no different here.  If you want supplemental insurance to cover a different hospital or benefits, someone will provide it.  If you want to pay for that extra test that’s most likely non-essential, no one is stopping you from finding a way to have it done.  It doesn’t matter wherever you are, you can get so much if you’re willing to part with your money.

I’m personally not completely jazzed about the possibility of putting my tax dollars towards paying for health coverage of those that do not contribute to society in some valuable way… But it would benefit myself and most of society more than the current system costs us.

Let’s take a hypothetical… Lets say that we all have to go to another country to live.  I wonder how many would choose a country without national health care since it is such a pariah on the existence of freedom.