OddBeliefs.com

I’m glad Barack Obama got the nomination. I think, however, that he has his work cut out for him if he gets elected president and tries to reform the health care system.

The corruption in the American health care industry would make any third world resident blush. Current news items about the difficulty of obtaining individual health insurance policies don’t begin to cover the scope or enormity of the problem. Editors and pundits have hardly addressed the problem of the damage to the American economy done by the health insurance companies as they deny almost everyone access to affordable and reliable individual or even small group policies. Forget Walmart–the biggest killer of small businesses in the U.S. is the health insurance industry.

Back in the 1980’s I was working as a professional classical musician. My employer didn’t provide benefits, not even health insurance. I tried to buy an individual policy from a well-known insurance giant. I was required to provide a blood sample and a urine sample, which I felt was an invasion of my privacy, but I reluctantly complied. I passed those tests (I didn’t have a drug habit and wasn’t afflicted with AIDS or HIV) but I was still turned down. I found out that the insurance company, after combing through my medical history, thought that I had been to the gynecologist too many times. Frightened by minor female troubles, they deemed me uninsurable.

I have since changed careers, in part to obtain health insurance coverage. I’m way beyond bitter.

It is time for Americans to demand universal health care. The health insurance companies have lost their legitimacy and should not have any part in the next system. Although buying Congressmen and women worked splendidly for them for a long time, we can wake up and take back Congress.

The United States has 260 million people. If we were all one group, we could bargain for some pretty good deals on prescription drugs, long-term care, care for the mentally ill, and other things that many of us have come to think of as luxuries. We could even give people access to AIDS treatment and drug rehabilitation.

It’s time to stop clucking our tongues about our friends and neighbor’s unsolved medical troubles. As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Apathy about government must end. Relying on the market to fix things must end. The market is fixing us into the grave.

Posted in Health Care, Politics, Rants |