The Cost Is Our Health

Walter Cronkite once said, "America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system." I've just read an article that does an excellent job of pointing out how right Mr. Cronkite was.

The article states that as profit margins narrow, some very large insurers "... will not sacrifice profitability for membership."

When speaking to investors, in economic terms, that just sounds like a hardline position a company is taking.  It sounds like a decision executives had to make to insure profits, but the problem is that this isn't the production of a commodity that consumers can choose to or not to purchase (though that is indeed the counter argument that these insurers would make).

The fact of the matter is that the people who can no longer afford the policy can now no longer afford to be healthy, which will directly or indirectly shorten their lives. How much shorter will it make their lives? Perhaps the mismanagement of their health will shorten their lives from 75 years to 72 years, or it very well could shorten their lives from 75 years to 39 years.

I personally have avoided going to the doctor for numerous things because I was on a stretch in between health insurance carriers. In fact, I think I broke my foot last year. Notice I said "think" because I still don't know.  I was a full-time student over the age of 25. That means that I didn't qualify for insurance through my parents.  I could've gotten coverage through my part-time job (which is a rare exception in the working world), but the amount of money that would've come out of my paychecks would've made it very difficult to pay the rest of my monthly bills. The result? I limped for two months and then off and on for another month or two after that. It wasn't too bad, and after all, that's what we're supposed to do as Americans, right? Tough it out? Heaven forbid that we have a right to anything beyond shooting off our mouths and our guns.

The problem here is that there are people out there with corner offices sitting around large oak tables in control of our health.  Their priority is maximizing profits, and often that is at the expense of the service that they are supposed to be providing.  It's frustrating when it makes the average person's life inconvenient, but when it is actually jeopardizing our lives and the lives of our loved ones, it's nothing short of criminal.  There are few countries in the world where citizens will tolerate, and even justify such actions, but you do it everyday.

There's a great program on healthcare systems around the world that was produced by PBS. It's viewable in segments on their site.