Health Care

What annoys me the most about the Health Care debate (and I'm probably repeating myself) is that WE'RE ALREADY PAYING FOR THESE PEOPLE'S HEALTH CARE. Seriously. When someone goes into a hospital and cannot afford to pay the bill, do you think that the costs magically disappear?!? No, in the real world, which is where I live, I don't know about you, my insurance company is mandated by the law to pay hospitals to treat those who cannot pay. And since those people ONLY go to the doctor when they are, well, dying (or at least they feel like they're dying), there is no such thing as preventative medicine (like having a doctor tell you that your cholestoral is too high BEFORE you have a massive heart attack--last I heard, Lipitor is cheaper than a quadruple bi-pass).

So, the question is--do we keep the status quo and keep paying for the dying people, or do we, gasp, mandate health insurance so that everyone will see a family doctor at least once a year, dealing with problems WHILE THEY ARE SMALL AND THEREFORE CHEAP, and who knows, maybe making progress with the obesity epidimic, too.

And if you think like one of my Uncles, and that mandating health insurance will increase everyone's premiums, then let us look at this LOGICALLY:

1. Part of your premium is ALREADY paying for these people's health coverage. This is money that can be moved from the hospitals and into a fund for said BASIC mandated insurance (for those who cannot afford insurance and whose employers do not offer coverage).

2. When people who CAN afford health insurance, but CHOOSE not to have it, will no longer be able to mooch off the hospitals, which will reduce costs to insurance companies and the hospitals (any money not funding the basic insurance, can be invested like insurance companies and hospitals would like to do. This will also increase the monitary base that the insurance coverage pools from.

3. I've already talked about how identifying and treating illnesses while they are small is cheaper than waiting for all the shit to hit the fan.

And finally 4. If after all this analysis your premium does increase, then we need to look at the insurance company and see how their profits are doing compared to their expenses. I understand that the gut reaction is that "if it's mandated, they can charge whatever they want," but car insurance is mandated--do THEY charge whatever they want? And also, we pretend to live in a capitalist society: doesn't that mean that companies CAN and SHOULD charge whatever they want? Because we all have the freedom to start a competing company which charges less, but makes up for it in total number of customers. When we start complaining about companies charging whatever arbitrary amount that we want, we need to start really fearing Socialism.

Communism

After learning all about the plan Mao had in mind and how his communism almost worked, I started thinking--Communism has SERIOUSLY been misrepresented and is too easily confused with Socialism. They are to VERY different entities that shouldn't be confused. Let me explain:

Socialism is when the government takes from those who have to give to those who don't have in order to make everyone equal. Yeah. It doesn't work.

Communism involves no government. It is a totally individual run entity. And it's something that to an extent we already to--it's totally just an act of sharing within your community. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"--or so says Marx. No where does it say "You must give everything and receive it back". That is just stupid. Your neighbor needs a cup of sugar, you need a babysitter so you can run to the store to pick up some bread--that, my dear, is Communism. Expand it further as far as you need. Maybe in a society there will be a doctor who works for food and clothing because he cannot acquire for himself these necessities while caring for your child. But since the barter system has already proved itself inefficient in use, there is no reason why dollars can't be used instead.

But it's not capitalism. It's not "it cost me $5 to make this, so I will sell it to you for $25". The secret to Communism is giving things actual worth. Identifying actual costs is 95% of the crap that is wrong with our current Capitalist system. You ask anyone and "Profits" is the most important thing to ANY company. Guess what? Profits means absolutely nothing! All profits do is stuff the pockets of businessmen who happen to own the company. Look, I have NO problem with people making a wage that would astonish me (i.e. anything over $100,000 a year). Too many people defend big business because it is their "right" to make as much money as humanly possible without REALLY thinking about what they are allowing. The peons of Wal-mart don't get a pay raise when the company makes a profit--it's those who don't have a wage, but just decide to split the profits after paying the costs (i.e. the peon's wage, cost of the goods, etc.). This doesn't mean that stockholders get paid--the profits can pretty much go where ever the bosses decide. Research and Development? Ehh...I think they bill that under costs. Nope. Right into their pockets. That's where most of our money goes. What we NEED to do is make companies set wages of big bosses. It can be 25 Billion dollars a year for all I care, but I want to make sure that when they make that 26th billion, it isn't going into someone's pocket. I don't know about you, but I don't think I'll ever be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and I don't think I'd want to, but so what if my salary is limited to 25 Billion? Do I REALLY need that 26th? Nah, I'm good. How come their salary isn't limited? They sure do limit MY salary. But please, don't see this as an attack on big business--it's not at all. Every SINGLE dollar earned over cost can go to R&D--where the REAL work is done. You can't deny Steve Jobs--he designs so F@*%ing AWESOME stuff--it sells itself with a little help from the advertising department. So, in my perfect world, those big bosses get their set salary where all "profits" can be spent ANYWHERE BUT into their own pockets--unlike the current system.

That last paragraph is my defense as to why Communism won't become a major player for at least the next 100 years. Greed kills perfection bud. But if you like playing fair and creating a closer world, buy locally in small businesses. And come up with a way to do this kind of cost-benefit analysis to improve the health care system--I don't care what I have written here--so far as I care, capitalism as we know it is the ONLY way to ensure excellent care. I have no idea where to cut costs in research and there is no way in HELL I would cut the salaries in any way to doctors, nurses, whatevers. But using these resources more efficiently definitely helps. Being healthy is the BEST way to reform health care. BUT 100% of being healthy is in going to the doctor, which can't be done if it costs an arm and a leg to go. This is why EVERYONE needs insurance. As for making health care affordable, see my next post.