I really was proud of this country once. I spent my adolescence in the sixties and celebrated my sixteenth birthday in Los Angeles. Of course, I was proud of what we might become, not what we were. At the time we were maxing out our troop presence in Vietnam and the counter-culture movement looked to my naïve eyes as if it might actually change the way things were. Huge numbers of people, led by students, were mobilizing against the war, FM radio was just being born, The Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead were the bands of the day and anything was possible. We were landing on the moon for heaven's sake! I imagined a future of peace and prosperity and equality. And then came Kent State, S.I. Hayakawa, Nixon, and Watergate. The realization that the power structure saw our dreams as nightmares and that they had the power to awaken us was one of the crushing blows of my young life. Since then I've pretty much sat on the sidelines and carped. All real hope for change is gone. I used to believe in some moral pendulum that would one day swing the other way. It hasn't yet and I've been watching for it for four decades now.
Today I read Malcolm Gladwell's piece in The New Yorker about the failure of our healthcare system. A sampling - we spend $5,267 per capita on health care every year, more than twice the industrialized world's average, and forty-five million people have no health insurance. The United States has fewer doctors, fewer immunized children, and a lower life expectancy than our fellow "developed" countries. How can this be? Largely because of what Gladwell describes as the Moral Hazard Myth. This is a belief that insurance changes the behavior of the insured. Insurance will cause people to go to the doctor unnecessarily. People will spend their money wisely if it's their money. If it's the taxpayers money, well, those fools will just waste it. The problem with this assumption is that it presupposes the uninsured have the money to spend in the first place. Any child could see the truth. The 2004 Economic Report of the President suggests that most people who don't have insurance have chosen not to have it. Incredible. The President's solution - have the people without insurance set aside tax free accounts to save for their medical needs. Have them buy catastrophic insurance plans for the really big stuff. Like the poor people in this country have the money! If it weren't so evil it would be insane.
But it's not, it's our country. And it sure hurts that it is.
Ed/Pub:LM
Article comments
1 - John Bill
Health care is one of the biggest ripoffs around. Why should an asprin cost $50 at the hospital. Maybe it's lawsuits that are driving up costs though. There is no way that guy in the Vioxx case deserved that much money.
2 - alethinos59
It sure does... I love how these men, who've never worked a friggin' day in THEIR sanitized lives come up with brilliant ideas like the "tax free account". What goddamned idiots! How the HELL are these people gonna be able to put away ANYTHING when they're living hand-to-mouth?!
"Hey hon! I'm going to up our contributions to the account to $20 a month!"
"Great darling, by the end of the year we'll be able to afford drive BY the emergency room and have them yell a suggested diagnosis!"
The Republican AND Democrats are useless...
3 - Bennett
My family's HC policy went up from $753 to $870 a month this year. That's a 15% increase and believe me, it hurts.
Health care is a joke in the USA, unless you own shares of course.
4 - anonymous
I'm not advocating that U.S. individuals "Do whatever they have to Do" to get equitable medical care, in spite of the law, the tax code and personal income.
And, I am not saying that those individuals who do will become heroic, living examples of a sort that will cause systemic change in the U.S. medical system and insurance plans, either.
However, the newsworthy actions of individuals facing physical or psychological pain produce stories, and those stories stimulate the public and force political change. Get my drift?
5 - Temple Stark
BC Culture /Tech editor Lisa Hoover chose this for a pick of the week. Click HERE to fnd out why.
Thank you. EE Temple
6 - California Health Insurance
Health care will always be a major issue in the U.S. All we can do is work to improve it, and try to help every individual get covered with health insurance.