After listening to both side scream at each other for lo these many months, I have decided to put aside some stuff I was working on and solve our National Health Insurance Crisis. You may thank me in advance.
First, let's talk about the nature of private insurance companies. We'll start with one basic fact: the insurance companies don't give a fuck about you. Let's say, for instance, that you're driving down the road, and HOLY SHIT LOOK OUT IT'S AN ARMADILLOSPLATSCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHCRUNCHPFFFFFT (that last bit was your airbag deploying). You call your insurance guy, and tell him what happened, and he expresses sympathy and immediately cuts you a check for the damage to your car because you're in Good Hands with Allst*** and they want to do whatever they can to make sure you get as much money from them as possible, as quickly as possible, because they care about your physical, mental, and financial well-being tells you that he'll have some investigators out there within a few weeks to find out what really happened and if it was in fact an armadillo (did you save the armadillo corpse? No? Hmmm) they'll need to make sure that you're getting the absolute minimum of the ballpark figure that the insurance company is obligated to pay you. They care about their money. They are a business, a business that doesn't invent, produce, or distribute anything. The only thing they do is collect your money and hope that nothing bad ever happens to you. Because if it does, they have to give away the money they collected. And the more they do that, the less money they make. So they will do whatever they legally can to make sure that they give you as little money as possible if/when you actually do need to file a claim, or have a procedure done. That's it. That's the insurance industry in a nutshell.
Second, private health insurance companies are under no obligation whatsoever to give you health insurance. This is pragmatic - stacking the odds in their favor, so that they reduce the chances of having to pay you for procedures and care that you may need. (See Paragraph one re: "the more they do that, the less money they make".) We've heard the term "pre-existing condition", and the concept exists solely to help insurance companies maximize their profits. Example: my son has been denied coverage from every single major health insurance provider due to an illness he had over three years ago, an illness from he which he fully recovered, with no aftereffects. But the underwriters are trained to deny any- and everything that might result in them having to pay money to customers, even when doctors tell them it won't. Health insurance is for the healthy! (I've had people try to argue with me about this, telling us its our fault, we don't know what we're talking about, blah blah blah. It's interesting that such people have been, to a person, covered under a company-sponsored plan. I tell them the same thing - I hope for your sake you never find yourself in our position, self-employed, because good luck if you've been treated for, say, acne.)
So, that said, do I think private insurance companies should be abolished? Not at all. In fact, keep 'em - because not everyone needs the same level of health insurance. If you can afford it, and can get covered by a private insurer, more power to you. There DOES need to be an option, though, for people like me. I pay a lot of money each month for my wife and daughter and self (yes, we did get Lucas coverage under a state-sponsored program - but we were later dropped from that program as it fell victim to California budget cuts; it cost us as much to insure him as it does to insure me, my wife, and my daughter, and yes, I know you righties out there will be all "why should the state help pay for your kid to be insured, fuck him, socialized medicine, blah blah blah" and again, I'll assume that you've never personally had to deal with having coverage denied, massive hospital bills, and nod and smile and tell you that I hope that you never do, because I goddamn guarantee you that you'll change your tune the minute it happens to you). We can afford it. Would we pay less if we could? Yes, and unless you're not blessed with what they call "intelligence" I believe you would as well.
So, an option: a government run national insurance program, for people who need it (not just old people), who otherwise would not be able to qualify for, much less afford insurance on their own, to go alongside and act as an alternative to - NOT replace - existing insurance companies. The private sector isn't "bad" or "evil" for what they do; it's the nature of capitalism, and when one forces a company to do business in such a way that the company loses money - well, bit of a slippery slope (although acne as a pre-existing condition? That ain't right), and I say this as one who's been on the short end of the insurance stick for some time. And who knows - capitalism feeds on competition, and breaking up the hegemony that the insurance companies have on who gets care might be good for all of us, financially speaking (if I can go to a cheaper insurer, I will, and my company's out four paying customers). It's apparent, though, that there does need to be some alternative - because, simply put, lives are at stake.
UPDATED 7:46 PM PST: Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way.
