Pulling Up the Ladder Again -- Health Care Reform
A couple of times recently, the computer that picks out the items on Google News has highlighted Letters to the Editor, maybe as published in various newspapers, though i believe the two I have seen were both from the NY Times. Can posts from weblogs as sensationally obscure as this one be far behind? Actually I have seen several posts from weblogs, some time ago.
The last Letter I saw was from a lady who recommended going easy on all the concerns with health care insurance reforms, and instead health care itself is what should be discussed, I guess as if the insurance does not even exist.
That sounds eminently practical and sage, but -- in this country at least -- generally it is difficult if not impossible to get most kinds of health care without paying for it to a greater or lesser extent, and that means acting ahead of time and setting aside for a rainy day or gambling on getting sick or working for a thoughtful employer or however one defines the situation of having health insurance. When one goes for health care, the first thing said is, "Show me your health care insurance card," and without one a person feels completely naked and vulnerable to all sorts of indignity. So right now it keeps coming down to making reforms in health care insurance that ensure that everyone who needs it can get health insurance and thus health care, and that the people who provide the care are suitably reimbursed.
But the trouble with making reforms in health care insurance, especially in making sure that no one is left uninsured, is that one runs up against the same kind of situation that leaves so many problems of American life only partly solved, and that is that you're asking the fox, "What about the chickens?" And in health care the fox consists of too many of the people who already have adequate health care insurance.
People who have something of value, however achieved, have a way of being less than zealous about helping others arrive in the same fortunate circumstances. It's the "Pulling up the Ladder Syndrome" yet again, that is seen over and over in other areas of endeavor from coast to coast.
In the past people who have gotten comfortable in beautiful and less populated Oregon have not welcomed Californians who want to move in with them. A prospector who has struck gold gets very uneasy when soon afterward other prospectors arrive and new claims pop up all around him. People who enjoy full civil rights are not happy about seeing those who were forced to be servile to them achieving the same rights, and, out of much the same overwhelming desire to think well about one's self, which usually involves feeling uncharitable toward others so that the glaring contrasts can be maintained, rich people are not overjoyed at seeing formerly poor people climbing into their ranks, and they snort such objections as saying that the undeserving are being given things that normally have to worked for, and so forth. And one of the great menaces seen nowadays are so-called illegal immigrants, loudly voiced by people whose ancestors in former times were themselves seen as being illegal immigrants in someone's eyes.
And because the foxes are in such numbers and have a lot of influence, especially by voting, and are so determined to keep things arranged so as to favor them above others, the problems remain seemingly intractable, so that attempted U.S. reforms in health care insurance have already failed at least twice in the last two decades.
We can see that happening in the responses of those who have health care insurance and are opposed to having changes made so that others can have it as well, and one of their tactics is to neatly combine this lack of concern for those 40 or 50 million who have no health insurance at all, with playing on anti-immigrant fears by charging that 20 percent of the uninsured are illegal immigrants.
Or those who have insurance act as if health care is finite, and as if, if more health care is furnished to others, less of it of the same quality will become available to those with insurance, and they complain about the costs of the proposals being made, yet they don't hesitate to approve spending trillions of dollars for weapons of mass destruction and large armadas designed to deliver this death and destruction -- always to lesser folk overseas.
A man named Johnathan Cohn who has looked at the health care crisis extensively says the following about research he did on health care in Holland and in France:
"...In the course of a few dozen lengthy interviews, not once did I encounter an interview subject who wanted to trade places with an American. And it was easy enough to see why. People in these countries were getting precisely what most Americans say they want: Timely, quality care. Physicians felt free to practice medicine the way they wanted; companies got to concentrate on their lines of business, rather than develop expertise in managing health benefits. But, in contrast with the US, everybody had insurance. The papers weren’t filled with stories of people going bankrupt or skipping medical care because they couldn’t afford to pay their bills. And they did all this while paying substantially less, overall, than we do."
The last Letter I saw was from a lady who recommended going easy on all the concerns with health care insurance reforms, and instead health care itself is what should be discussed, I guess as if the insurance does not even exist.
That sounds eminently practical and sage, but -- in this country at least -- generally it is difficult if not impossible to get most kinds of health care without paying for it to a greater or lesser extent, and that means acting ahead of time and setting aside for a rainy day or gambling on getting sick or working for a thoughtful employer or however one defines the situation of having health insurance. When one goes for health care, the first thing said is, "Show me your health care insurance card," and without one a person feels completely naked and vulnerable to all sorts of indignity. So right now it keeps coming down to making reforms in health care insurance that ensure that everyone who needs it can get health insurance and thus health care, and that the people who provide the care are suitably reimbursed.
But the trouble with making reforms in health care insurance, especially in making sure that no one is left uninsured, is that one runs up against the same kind of situation that leaves so many problems of American life only partly solved, and that is that you're asking the fox, "What about the chickens?" And in health care the fox consists of too many of the people who already have adequate health care insurance.
People who have something of value, however achieved, have a way of being less than zealous about helping others arrive in the same fortunate circumstances. It's the "Pulling up the Ladder Syndrome" yet again, that is seen over and over in other areas of endeavor from coast to coast.
In the past people who have gotten comfortable in beautiful and less populated Oregon have not welcomed Californians who want to move in with them. A prospector who has struck gold gets very uneasy when soon afterward other prospectors arrive and new claims pop up all around him. People who enjoy full civil rights are not happy about seeing those who were forced to be servile to them achieving the same rights, and, out of much the same overwhelming desire to think well about one's self, which usually involves feeling uncharitable toward others so that the glaring contrasts can be maintained, rich people are not overjoyed at seeing formerly poor people climbing into their ranks, and they snort such objections as saying that the undeserving are being given things that normally have to worked for, and so forth. And one of the great menaces seen nowadays are so-called illegal immigrants, loudly voiced by people whose ancestors in former times were themselves seen as being illegal immigrants in someone's eyes.
And because the foxes are in such numbers and have a lot of influence, especially by voting, and are so determined to keep things arranged so as to favor them above others, the problems remain seemingly intractable, so that attempted U.S. reforms in health care insurance have already failed at least twice in the last two decades.
We can see that happening in the responses of those who have health care insurance and are opposed to having changes made so that others can have it as well, and one of their tactics is to neatly combine this lack of concern for those 40 or 50 million who have no health insurance at all, with playing on anti-immigrant fears by charging that 20 percent of the uninsured are illegal immigrants.
Or those who have insurance act as if health care is finite, and as if, if more health care is furnished to others, less of it of the same quality will become available to those with insurance, and they complain about the costs of the proposals being made, yet they don't hesitate to approve spending trillions of dollars for weapons of mass destruction and large armadas designed to deliver this death and destruction -- always to lesser folk overseas.
A man named Johnathan Cohn who has looked at the health care crisis extensively says the following about research he did on health care in Holland and in France:
"...In the course of a few dozen lengthy interviews, not once did I encounter an interview subject who wanted to trade places with an American. And it was easy enough to see why. People in these countries were getting precisely what most Americans say they want: Timely, quality care. Physicians felt free to practice medicine the way they wanted; companies got to concentrate on their lines of business, rather than develop expertise in managing health benefits. But, in contrast with the US, everybody had insurance. The papers weren’t filled with stories of people going bankrupt or skipping medical care because they couldn’t afford to pay their bills. And they did all this while paying substantially less, overall, than we do."
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 10:30 AM
1 Comments:
True. Sometimes medical insurance might be of no use, but I have something I would like to share with you all. My son’s head was getting larger than normal. It was getting distinctive with time. He used to vomit excessively, and was getting weaker and weaker because of less sleep. At that time, we referred to a doctor, who sent us to the neurosurgeon, and then CT scans were taken on him. The result showed that there was an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid. So, we need to carry out the shunt operation. It was a very dreadful feeling all over my mind on those days. It was also getting quite costly for me to handle all the medications, as it was going beyond the limit of health insurance. I need to keep him under constant surveillance, as any ignorance to even a small health problem may lead him to severe fatal problems. So, I decided to hire a health service which could take care of him thoroughly starting from medical checkup to even his diet. As he is required to be under constant surveillance, we hired a prevention plan for my family as well from a health care company named elite health (www.elitehealth.com). They used to monitor his health at regular interval, have interactions with them regarding any health issues, provides him a facility to contact them immediately 24/7 for any health problems. Today he is 15 year old, happy, adjusted with what god has offered him. We have certainly saved a lot financially also, as we need not require spending unnecessarily on baseless checkups and doctor appointments. Such wellness program really is the wise investments for those who are really in the need for such a service.
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