Lipstick on a Pig
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
And all the King’s horses,
And all the King’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty
Together again!!
What better way to describe the current status of the health care system in America?
The Humpty Dumpty health insurance system in America is broken and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again, and yet this Congress seems to be waffling on fixing this mess. Single Payer has apparently been taken off the table and an ‘ethereal’ public option is being bandied about as a possible crumb to the masses who are demanding change.
We need to give up on Humpty Dumpty and start all over with a Single Payer system that covers everyone. We will eventually have it, but for now we seem content to put our finger in the dike while the water pours over the top, ala New Orleans.
Insurance groupings should not be determined by thousands of groups of varying sizes and rates with loopholes that exclude and deny coverage. Under Single Payer everyone in the nation would be considered one insurance group and because of its size it will be more efficient, more fair, more inclusive, and less expensive.
Under the present employment based system, health care is the elephant in the room at many job interviews. The employer is desperately trying to avoid hiring possible health problems, and the employee is desperately seeking a job to get insurance. It is a corrupting, deceptive, unethical conflict that should have no bearing on employment.
The employer is quick to hire an employee whose spouse is working for a company that has a better health care plan because the company can then unfairly shift health costs of its employees to the other company. A person that appears to be a health care risk has little chance in a job interview. It is an American tragedy that we have been unwilling to face. The idea that a person can’t get a job or shift jobs because they are a health care risk is about as cruel as it gets, and some want to call it the great American free enterprise system. Too many employees have become the equivalent of indentured servants, and conversely employers have become ‘indentured employers,’ stuck with employees whose health risks suddenly escalate and in many cases force them to abandon giving insurance at all or face bankruptcy.
Under Single Payer this would change because everyone would be covered, and at the same rates. All businesses would be on equal footing regarding health insurance.
The current situation is also a nightmare to our great physicians and more and more of them are becoming advocates of Single Payer, and some polling shows that a majority of physcians lean toward Single Payer. Office expenses for doctors have escalated over the years as they try to cope with the myriad differences of health insurance companies. Doctors are plagued by these unnecessary costs due to insurance companies creating artificial mazes to delay payment of legitimate bills.
The most important person in the doctor’s office has become the reimbursement specialist, and they truly require specialist training to understand all the intricacies of insurance trickery. We are now giving degrees or certificates to indicate expertise in the field.
Doctors are also plagued by predatory lawyers who are wallowing in the same hell hole as our predatory lenders. To be satisfactory the new Single Payer system of health care must provide greater protection to our good doctors from the frivolous lawsuits that increase the cost of medicine for everyone, and yet maintain legitimate malpractice protections and assure quality control systems. Conversely, we should also eliminate the conflict of interests doctors have established through self-referrals that increase unnecessary procedures and increase costs.
The people of America are clamoring for a new health care insurance system while the people of Canada are as content as Obama is with a microphone. There isn’t a nation in Europe that would trade systems with us. They aren’t even discussing change.
Despite all this sense we don’t appear ready yet for Single Payer health care. President Obama would go for it in a minute if the climate was right, but the health care climate is as polluted as the air we breathe. One stigma facing lawmakers are the terms ‘nationalized’ or ’socialized medicine’. We need to realize that Single Payer is not nationalized health care. Doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals remain independent. It nationalizes only the way insurance is delivered.
While it would have a dramatic negative effect on the health insurance industry there will still be demand for supplemental insurance policies similar to what is happening in Medicare.
Too many Americans have been raised with an anti-government phobia, and yet nationalized health insurance would be the very best cure for our ailing free enterprise system, and in fact, the current health insurance system is a cancer eating up the free enterprise system day-by-day.
If the wimpy Democrats cave in to the whiney Republicans and we end up with Humpty Dumpty again we will have fulfilled one of the most repeated campaign mottos—we will have put ‘lipstick on a pig.’
November 18th, 2009 at 7:48 am
All of what you said makes too much sense. The “health care issue” needs a simple solution, but small minds and deep pockets fill most of the seats in our congress, each one with its own financial or religious agenda,as well as incredible political ambition; each receiving (from what I understand) a pretty nice health care plan. I also see the “Single Payer” option as the solution to our health care quagmire. I love your article and respect your viewpoints.I look forward to more.
Judy