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American Extremists: "Reality sinks"

vastleft's picture
Submitted by vastleft on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 12:03am
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American Extremists

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Submitted by Anne on

still trying to decide between laughing at the absurdity of it all or crying with the frustration of how things are being handled/addressed.

It's endemic and epidemic all at the same time; it's impossible to find a national media outlet that can report with any accuracy what the heck the legislation is all about, which in turn provides too much cover for the slip-sliding positions of members of Congress and the president.

There is much to make one crazy about what the Congress is doing - and not doing - but what I would like to hear being screamed on every street corner is the one siimple truth that is being deliberately ignored:

Health Insurance Is Not Health Care.

I understand Obama is going to be campaigning for the bill this week; I would seriously love to see a few town halls where every single person who gets a chance to address the president simply stands up and states, "Mr. President, health insurance is not health care," pauses for effect, and waits for a response. I figure it might be possible to get three people to do that before it would get shut down, but I think it would make a point that simply has not been allowed to be addressed. And I think that elemental truth might inspire others to speak their own truth:

Health Insurance Companies are Not Just Not Making Americans Healthier, They Are Not Making the American Economy Healthier;

Employer-Based, Non-Portable, Health Insurance is Stifling Entrepreneurship and Creativity;

45,000 People Die Every Year Who Do Not Have Health Insurance; How Many Die Who Do Because Their Insurance Company Won't Authorize the Care They Need?

Health Care Providers will Not Disapper if Insurance Companies Do.

[I seriously need a better fantasy life...]

vastleft's picture
Submitted by vastleft on

Unfortunately, I think Obama would be considered suave and sober if he answered "health insurance is a means to receiving healthcare" followed by some sickeningly exploitative anecdote and some smarm about government and corporate bureaucrats.

Submitted by Anne on

Doctors go to medical school, not Insurance University, so insurance is never going to be a means to receiving health care; it is only ever going to be a means of controlling who does and does not get the care they need, a means of separating individuals and the government from money that could actually go to care instead of insurance, and converting it to their own use - much to Wall Street's delight.

And how do we know this? Look at how insurance company profits are increasing, and look at how insurance stocks are performing; then look at the quality of the products the insurance companies are providing, and the cost-sharing burden they impose on the individual. The better the financial health of the insurance industry, the worse the physical, mental and financial health of the people they insure.

This is so elementary as to be insulting to the intelligence of the average person to attempt to bamboozle and okey-doke us into thinking otherwise.

vastleft's picture
Submitted by vastleft on

Isn't single-payer an insurance plan, one where the costs are spread out among taxpayers as opposed to the draconian rent system of private insurance?

I'm not strictly sure that attacking insurance, as opposed to attacking commercial / for-profit insurance is the winning ticket.

It's certainly a worthy point (that insurance conscription is wrongly and cruelly mislabeled "healthcare reform," and sometimes even as "healthcare" itself). I just don't quite see this as a breakthrough meme. Just my two cents of parade rain.

Submitted by Anne on

that does bear repeating in the context of what the administration is trying to sell us; the focus of this “reform” effort did a quick and deliberate pivot from “Care” to “Insurance” almost from the beginning, and no one in the administration, and hardly anyone in the Democratic caucus, has ever looked back.

Not only that, but there has been a concerted effort to sell certain aspects of the legislation – no rescissions, not being dropped from a plan when one gets sick – without much discussion about cost-sharing, about the mandates, about the excise tax, and so on.

So, my objections are not just to what is being sold, but how it is being sold, because there is little or no honesty involved: they want to sell “with insurance, all your troubles will be over,” but the product they are selling cannot deliver on either the express or implied claim.

Maybe it’s better to say, “yes, single-payer is also insurance – just as Medicare is also insurance. The difference is that in a single-payer system, everyone is in the same pool, everyone has the same coverage and payment for everyone’s care is administered through one entity.”

vastleft's picture
Submitted by vastleft on

My only point of disagreement had been the notion that this point -- which I agree bears repeating -- would open the floodgates of understanding.

I think it's a brick in the wall of understanding, but perhaps not the cornerstone. I'm not sure what the latter is, I admit.

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

... and of course, the T-shirt possibilities are endless.

I'm thinking of various possibilities, like rotating them in the sidebar, or possibly a widget to which other blogs could subscribe. Do those make sense?

Turlock