I'm against any kind of market-based approach to universal health care.
Our objective should not be the highest priority is what's good for business
in this regard. That's the attitude immediately and transparently revealed as harmful and inadequate when ideologically,
an American president attempted to suspend minimum wage in the Katrina disaster area;
when he immediately asserted opportunity for profit before securing a disaster
area;
- suggesting that the public good is best served if profits are prioritized
first.
It borders on oxymoron to even suggest that government should be run as a
business first and foremost. One primary reason is that profit unreasonably gets asserted as more important than the public
good.
Bushco has amply demonstrated the failure of corporate capitalism to successfully
care for its citizens or even to wage war (as if waging war were a constitutional obligation rather than national
expediency) in the most economically wise and efficient manner. The Medicare D Supplement in reality is a massive act of corporate
capitalist foolishness birthed by greed and lobby payments - not honest public discourse on the highest public good.
Speaking "capitalistically" and "market-basedly" we do not - when our house
catches fire - call the fire department and make arrangements to pay a deductible before they will come. Our taxes have already
paid for that.
... or if we hear an intruder in the house, we do not call the police and
negotiate a deductible or co-pay term before they come out to keep us safe. Our taxes pay for that.
... Why the hell do we do that to ourselves regarding our most precious personal
asset - health?
"Because taxes could go up," defenders of the market-based capitalist religion
declare. To which even non-MBA's like me who have spent hundreds of hours at the kitchen table working out budgets reply,
"It's all in the budget priorities. We must be spending too much somewhere
else, eh? Like perhaps on a paranoid and insecure but profit-driven wide-eyed defense and weapons industry?
The assumption is false and we are asleep. Market-based corporatists want
us to stay that way.
It is all about bull shit ...the selling of bull shit ... the buying of
bull shit ... the lying about bull shit ... and the harming of an entire society by overdosing on bull shit.
When a wild-eyed elderly woman comes into my office saying she's heard terrible
horror stories about socialized medicine in Canada I'm ready to throw up or throw my hands in the air.
Think about it.
Great Britain apparently (at least per Sicko) launched
their version of socialized medicine right after WW II when they were not far removed from financial insolvency. They
ain't even come close to scrapping it.
Why not?
Well hell, because maybe what they've got - what Canada and France have -
works fine enough that their national public good and well-being far outweighs whatever problems come up. Regardless of American
corporate lies, those problems certainly are not the nightmares our lobbied-and-prompted politicians, insurers and care
providers constantly try to scare us with.
How DO they pay for it? With taxes of course.
Why COULDN'T we pay
for it with taxes? We could, of course.
We might have to give up or cut back to reasonable levels some other kind
of spending - like defense.
Of course we could and of course we should.
Those opposed to cutting
back military spending are not driven by fear of a massively global military monolith with resources approaching a trillion
dollars and planning an all-out attack and invasion of our homeland. They are driven by a fear of loss of profits.
Get the terrorists yes ... but with honest police work and funded actions
appropriate to legitimate need as a wise economic response.
But do we really need full-monte massive military assaults with nukes, 37
divisions plus the 4th, 5th , 6th, 7th, and 8th Fleets and the 98th, 99th and 100th Bomber Wings ... hell no!!
But of course that's another story to debate elsewhere whenever we get serious
about sourcing and budgeting much more important issues, like being 37th in global health effectiveness.
Besides, that
attack and invasion has already occurred.
It began years ago when we naively swallowed corporate bait and philosophy
- without any critical thinking or understanding that lobbyists were serious (they always MEANT business)
- hook, line and sinker.
We were attacked and invaded by corporate sharks who only got more openly
savage about it after 2000 when Dirty Dingus McBush open the trapdoors and helped the corporate Trojan Horse drop a massive
pile of stinking biscuits smack dab in every living room and homeless shelter in America.
So in terms of market-based
medicine for America, our medicine-based marketing sharks would be the ones in ICU if we ever woke up,
if we ever narrowed our wide-eyed naïveté
and went shopping for a better system.
© Arthur Ruger 2007