Now Would Be Good

In my previous posts I've talked about what it means to become an informed citizen, and given you some tools to help you reach that goal. I've also discussed the importance of making your voice heard. I'd intended to continue along those same lines, but instead have decided to address an issue that concerns every one of us. Coincidentally, it does fall in line with my previous posts in that it requires you to raise your voice, now more than ever.

For more than sixty years our elected representatives have been attempting, to various degrees, to address the problems of our nation's health care. Time after time, through every new administration, our governments have faced the issue simply because we demanded it. And unfortunately, those efforts have always proved to be meager at best, as we have forever witnessed our supposed representatives simply going through the motions in their attempts to appear to be doing something, while maintaining the status quo. Any fixes have tended to represent the health care industry they protect, and have amounted to applying a band-aid when a tourniquet is required. Medical malpractice of a legislative kind. Or perhaps just treating the symptoms instead of the cause.

Of course, the arguments which have worked so well in the past are being unpacked for another go-round. We hear that we don't want "socialized" medicine, even though Medicare would fall under that definition (as well as the health care coverage of every one of our representatives, paid for by taxpayers, while the same representatives vote to deny those benefits to the rest of us).

We hear that we don't want the government to decide whether we receive care or not, even though our private insurers do the same and worse, actively and routinely seeking to deny coverage, paying for investigators to unearth pre-existing conditions, and raising premiums and deductibles, all in the interests of generating enormous profits for their shareholders and executives. "You won't be able to choose your own doctor. You'll have to wait for treatments. Quality will deteriorate ..... ad infinitum."

All of these arguments have worked in the past, so it's no surprise that they're being used once again by those who benefit the most by leaving things the way they are. But for 43 million Americans, all of these arguments are becoming moot points. And with each bankruptcy caused by crippling health care costs, that message is becoming less effective. Every small business forced to close or drop its benefits due to skyrocketing premiums, every family or individual paying more per month for insurance than for housing, and every opportunity missed for reform leaves the same old arguments appearing dog-eared and worn. And with so many Americans uninsured or underinsured, and more each day, it becomes more difficult to suppress the truth. What is the truth? GREED. You've heard it from me before: Follow the money!

LIFE AS TEACHER

Years ago, I worked for an insurance company. I was employed in one of their large branch offices. At the time the company was owned by American Express, a very well capitalized parent company, indeed. That should give you some idea of the money to be made in insurance. I recall, at the beginning of a particular year, they had announced their income projections for the next twelve months. I also recall, six months later, when it appeared they would not meet their projections, the insurance company was instructed to begin dropping policyholders. That meant anyone who was any kind of risk whatsoever was to have their policy canceled. They would meet their projections, one way or another. It was all about the money. It still is.

That was an early lesson that did not go unnoticed by me. And that is why now, as in the past, when insurers in particular begin to offer cost cutting measures in good faith, when they openly acknowledge the crippling costs of coverage and volunteer to become caring partners in the health and well being of all Americans ..... I hear only dishonesty and desperation .

And I also hear the pleas of an entire industry that has been charged with the health care of all of our citizens, our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, our families and friends. I hear a $1 trillion industry that knows full well if Americans are given a choice, the continuing larceny of business as usual will at last come to an end. And the devastating costs of health care, along with their predatory profits, will die. This is why they are willing to do whatever it takes to deny you that choice. It's why, right now, you need to raise your voice and be heard. The industry is spending a lot of money to plug the ears of our representatives, and it will take every one of us in order to get through.

In my next post we'll examine some of the arguments being tossed around, as well as look at the cold hard facts which will inform you so that you can decide for yourself. But many Americans don't need facts and figures to be convinced. Their lives have already been touched and they have suffered the results.

I'll end with just a few noteworthy facts which lead us, as always, to our number one rule: Follow the money!


AMOUNTS SPENT BY HEALTH CARE LOBBYISTS IN THE FIRST QUARTER :

• $6.4 million - 5 largest private insurers and trade group America's Health Insurance Plans

• $1.5 million - United Health Group

• $809,000 - Aetna, Inc.

• $1.2 million - Wellpoint, Inc.

• $ 370,000 - Humana, Inc.

• $ 6.1 million - Pfizer, Inc. ($3.3 million in fourth quarter of 2008)