pecunium

Not just my country, but my state (which would be in the top 10-15 percent of nations in the world, if it stood alone as a nation), and what I, mostly think of as, "my city."

It's painful, and sad.

A brutal truth about American Healthcare

They came in their thousands, queuing through the night to secure one of the coveted wristbands offering entry into a strange parallel universe where medical care is a free and basic right and not an expensive luxury. Some of these Americans had walked miles simply to have their blood pressure checked, some had slept in their cars in the hope of getting an eye-test or a mammogram, others had brought their children for immunisations that could end up saving their life.

The LA Forum, the arena that once hosted sell-out Madonna concerts, has been transformed – for eight days only – into a vast field hospital. In America, the offer of free healthcare is so rare, that news of the magical medical kingdom spread rapidly and long lines of prospective patients snaked around the venue for the chance of getting everyday treatments that many British people take for granted.

This isn't country I was reaered to expect. It's been a demoralising 15 years. From the congressional lynch mob which hounded Clinton, to the orchestrated riots to suppress voting and steal the 2000 election (when one tries to suppress votes, that's stealing the process. I don't care what you think of the Bush v Gore and how it gifted Bush the Presidency. Importing operatives to scare people away from counting ballots is what thugs and tyrants do), the quescient acceptance by the Congress, the Media and the Populace of the blatant; admitted, felonies of the Bush Administration, the acceptance of torture as a tool (and make no bones about it, as a nation we have accepted it... the continued existence of the debate proves it).

Add the people who feel the need to show up at venues where Obama is speaking with guns on display (which is damned foolish, and counter to their probably aims, but I digress).

I begin to wonder if the idea which was the United States,

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,...

Noble fucking words. Some of the most stirring stuff I know. But then I read of things like this...

Christine Smith arrived at 3am in the hope of seeing a dentist for the first time since she turned 18. That was almost eight years ago. Her need is obvious and pressing: 17 of her teeth are rotten; some have large visible holes in them. She is living in constant pain and has been unable to eat solid food for several years.

"I had a gastric bypass in 2002, but it went wrong, and stomach acid began rotting my teeth. I've had several jobs since, but none with medical insurance, so I've not been able to see a dentist to get it fixed," she told The Independent. "I've not been able to chew food for as long as I can remember. I've been living on soup, and noodles, and blending meals in a food mixer. I'm in constant pain. Normally, it would cost $5,000 to fix it. So if I have to wait a week to get treated for free, I'll do it. This will change my life."

We need some sort of National Health care, to "promote the general welfare." It might be argued that it's in the interest of trying to, "insure domestic tranquility," because this can't go on. The gaps between the haves, the have nots, and the "just barely haves" are getting greater. The sense of a continuum is fading.

There need to be some systemic changes. Money doesn't equal speech. Corporations aren't people. "Fuck you, Jack, I got mine," is no way to run a country. The CEO of Whole Foods just had an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal where he offered, "The Whole Foods Alternative to Obamacare (which gives you an idea of the content). Suffice it to say he thinks the status quo is so-so. There is, you see, too much regulation of insurers.

What we need are high deductibles and "health care savings accounts", so people will take better care of themselves (eating more organic greens, and high fiber foods... honest, he says that). Right. That's gonna help the person with RA, the guy with congestive heart failure, the woman with bone degeneration.

The guy who breaks his leg is going to stop to negotiate a better price for treatment. He will take the time to weigh the merits of a titanium pin for $8,000, or a plaster cast for 4,000. I'm not a doctor. I'm not in a position to dicker.

But no, he offers up the idea of making it more expensive to be sick as a cure for high costs. But he wants more.

• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.

• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.

Got that, consolidate (that worked so well for banks), and make it easier for insurers to cherry pick the people who are either healthy, or have diseases they can nurse along for profitable sales of drugs, and equipment, under those high deductible/Healthcare Savings Accounts he likes.

This is the icing on the cake:

• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Got that. The rich will deign to contribute to the poor. Mercy, like a gentle rain from heaven shall drip down to us. What the hell is wrong with making a big pool and sharing out the risks. The US is ranked fiftieth in life expectency. The "best healtcare in the world can't keep up with Jordan, Puerto Rico, Austraila, Canada, France, Britain, the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, and 41 other nations in keeping it's people alive.

The cherry... he says the reason we can't have some form of national healthcare is the lack of it being included in the Declaration of Independence or Constition. Well guess what dude.... corporations (like the one you run) aren't mentioned by name either, so perhaps we ought to just dissolve it.

Yeah, I'm bitter. He has no worries. No one is telling him he's uninsurable. He's never going to suffer from having one treatment cause secondary problems he can't afford to fix. "Fuck you, jack. I got mine." And the people who have theirs are convincing a lot of other people to support them in fucking the rest of us over.

The Gettysburg Address ends with the hope that "this government, of the people, by the people, and for the people should not perish from the earth. Right now I'm afraid it will; because the things needed for the people, are being crushed. The past 15 years have diminished it, and the present doesn't seem to be doing much to haul it back to any sense of where it was.

Not with a bang, but a whimper.