Originally Posted by
Jack-O-Lantern
One of my greatest friends, a single woman in her 50s, is a (recently) self-employed financial analyst who worked in the corporate sector for 35 years (10 of them as my boss). She cannot obtain private medical insurance from any carrier to whom she's applied for the simple fact that a bone density test came out 'undetermined' a couple of years ago...i.e., she may be osteoporosis-bound. The test wasn't even conclusive--and she's afraid to have another as it just might show that yes, she has a disease that millions of other women will contract at her age and that fact will complicate even further her efforts to obtain some kind of coverage.
I know health insurance carriers are not charitable organizations, they're out to make a buck, and it certainly makes sense from an economic standpoint to encourage competition among independent carriers--but the status quo with health insurance is not working for so many, and is in fact taking an enormous toll in human collateral. And the scary part is--anyone out there right now could be yet another one of those casualties, by the simple event of losing their job or contracting a disease. At some point, at some time, compassion and inclusion has to start playing some sort of role in all this--otherwise we all lose, as a country and as human beings. Certainly, we will pay higher taxes, and there will be other serious economic issues we haven't even dreamed of yet. I don't think there's much disagreement about that.
But.
The private sector has been given an eternity to make some sort of substantive effort to correct inherent and long-standing problems. Their tactic of choice: ignore the humanity at the core of this and lobby like holy fuck to keep things just as they are. They've HAD their chance, no? Might it not be time to try something else? Because there are far too many people left out in the cold right now--left to die, some of them.
Not banging the drum for this bill, and not taking a partisan stance either, just trying to make sense of it. Not a huge fan of this administration or the last one either for that matter. I have no idea how things will turn out as I don't have crystal balls. Rather, I'm praying for some type of substantive, positive change--whether it comes about directly as a result of the passing of this bill, OR from lessons learned from the mistakes and problems which come about as a result of its passing.
This attempt at reform is bold, it's risky, it's problematic, it might not work, it might create huge problems for our country. It might, it might, it might. But then again, it just might work out, whether in its current form or in its inevitable permutations which will undoubtedly come about down the road. Without attempts, without mistakes and experiments and successes and failures and movement, nothing progresses--things just stay the same or, as in this case, become much worse at a very brisk pace.