It’s on everyone’s lips these days. Or, at least it was until the financial industry, and then the auto industry, and probably next the duck-plucking industry, needed “bailing out.” Our attention has been completely consumed by the economic crisis, sweeping all other urgent matters to the side like the portion of Thanksgiving leftovers that no one wants to take home.
To what do I refer? Health care.
It was a major referendum during the recent presidential campaign. If you didn’t have at least a loose plan to address it, you didn’t make it to the final finish. In the end, despite some promising ideas from the Obama consortium, the whole idea of health care for America has apparently slipped through the cracks. While Obama has been selecting his cabinet, he has yet to put any medicine in there, and that concerns me. Yes, the economic crisis is urgent, and it makes sense to prioritize that. And yes, there are still foul terrorists at large in the world, so foreign policy needs to be addressed quickly as well.
All this aside, I still feel that America’s health care continues to be a major priority, as well as education. If we’re looking for CHANGE, I’d like to see us CHANGE our sense of priorities. The economy and foreign policy are vital -- I’m not arguing that point. But I don’t see any CHANGE from the same old, same old in over addressing these areas while treating healthcare, and education, like the red-headed bastard stepchildren. I suddenly can’t recall the last time I heard any broadcaster or politician utter the words “health care.”
For me, and I’m sure for many Americans, health care is priority one. When insurance companies deny their services to people who are already ill, there is something extremely unethical going on. How can we allow businesses to exist and practice in an industry where the Hippocratic Oath is (or should be) the golden rule, and yet not expect them to service the ill and infirm? How is that even possible?
Furthermore, if insurance companies were to deny coverage to, say, African Americans, wouldn’t we straighten that out immediately? If they denied services to Jews? Women? (I would say to homosexuals -- but we already know that it’s okay to discriminate against homosexuals, apparently.) How do we allow discrimination of ANY kind to exist and pretend to stand against discrimination?
Allowing the sick to be denied services is blatant discrimination. It’s an extension of another discrimination we’ve been ardently stamping out for many years now: discrimination against the handicapped. If we’re going to mandate that a certain percentage of parking spaces be provided for the handicapped at all businesses, must we not then mandate that businesses in an industry that revolves around the Hippocratic Oath must NOT discriminate against those who need it the most?
Fine, fix the economy. Go ahead, see to foreign policy. But if Obama’s administration doesn’t step up VERY swiftly and provide a hard, clear, definitive kick directly into the collective gluteus maximus of the health insurance industry, his presidency will already be a failure.
After all, if you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.
The Emerald Quill
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5 comments:
Ask and you shall receive...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122844800734282227.html
How about if all those working in the health insurance business are also made to take the Hippocratic Oath, just like doctors?
Thanks, Ray! That article provides some relief... However, it still doesn't say anything about addressing the "pre-existing condition" exclusion so common to the health insurance industry. It also confirms my complaint that health care was getting a back seat when it makes this statement: "Mr. Daschle's comments will be the first public discussion by the Obama team on health care since Election Day." I do have some confidence in Daschle, so let's see what develops.
Peter, I agree. That should almost go without saying. Any part of providing health care should be held to the same level of responsibility as the core of the industry.
Don't confuse health care providers (doctors, nurses, etc.) with health insurers. These are the people who take the Hippocratic Oath and the Nightingale Oath.
Insurers, whether health, life, or casualty, are making a bet with you that you won't get sick, die, have your house burn down or crash the car. And like the house in Vegas, they always win. They are profit driven and act just like every other stock-holder accountable organization.
I'm not condoning their behavior, just explaining it. They don't just squeeze the consumer, they also pay the medical provider too little. There are lots of doctors closing shop and in the 80s and 90s every small hospital in the country had to close its doorsleaving the poor and the rural denizens without access to health care.
What we need is a single-payer system, but that won't happen in my lifetime.
Since I've now been on disability for two years, i qualify for Medicare and pre-existing conditions don't count. It is quite a relief.
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