Health Care 2009

Health Care 2009

Everyone’s talking about it at this point. I’m going to weigh in. Before you let out a deep sigh of indignant boredom, let me say that I have yet to hear anyone share my initial view on this subject before moving on to my ultimate conclusion (which is not entirely unique).

Health care is undoubtedly contributing to our ultimate problem which will lead to our demise as a species: over population. The only sure, tested and true route to a sustainable existence is living in accord with nature’s path. No industry, no agriculture, no control over the environment (and no health care). As long as we do everything we can to prevent our own death, as long as we try to ‘beat nature’ at it’s own game and ‘cheat death’ we will actually be contributing to our own downfall in the long run. This planet simply cannot sustain the number of humans we’re creating. Health care has become an industry, part of the machine. It’s no longer community members selflessly sacrificing they’re own wellbeing to make others well. Health care is now the repair ward where we patch folks up so they can go back to work pushing the economy forward one sweaty inch at a time. If that isn’t bad enough, the sick have to pay out of the ear just to be reintegrated into the society which didn’t take care of them in the first place (of course some employers will contribute to have their workers repaired). Health care is big business which plays on our primal desire to stay alive. Every organism on Earth, down to green organic slime mold, a single celled organism, fights to stay alive at all costs. We will stop at nothing to stay alive for as along as possible (it’s how we got this far). Survival, to the extent that it leads to reproduction, is our primary purpose. Everything else is peripheral in the life of an organism. In that light, health insurers, pharmaceutical corporations, hospitals, and many health care ‘professionals’ pray on our most basic need. They exploit us to their excessive gain.
So in all these ways I am against the concept of health care. I admit that there are many good people in the industry (mainly nurses) who simply seek to improve the lives of others, and I commend them. However, to the extent to which health care providers exploit people and hurt the species as a whole I do not support them.

Practically speaking, in modern society (which is far from utopian) we require universal health care. The current system in the United States, where the rich are provided better service than the poor, essentially a class based system, is bigoted and unacceptable by every professional and ethical standard. It is more clear today than in decades that the vast majority of the poor in the world are not to blame for their circumstances. If one can acknowledge this then the answer is clear: universal health care is a social obligation of the governing body. Everyone has to be on the same playing field, whether that coverage is good or not is not so much of a concern as its equality across social lines. It has to be all or none for everyone. Certainly any system we can create will be flawed and contain the prejudices of those administering it; however if we are to aim for a just society, then we must create one from our image of what is just. The status quo is not just. If by nothing else, this is evidenced by a simple comparison of our health statistics to those of similar nations. Our extremely over inflated ego and pride has us believing, once again, that we are the best; but, once again, the facts tell a very different story. If we make a fair comparison, the United States is doing the worst with what it’s got. We waste the most. We leave the most suffering people unhealed, forgotten. We charge the most for our half-baked, inefficient service. And in the end, as always, we blame the poor and the sick for what we did not give them.

One can only have faith in a flawed system that things will turn out better. Our votes, phone calls, emails and letters will do little to sway the congressmen and women who are soaked in industry dollars, lobbyist cash to keep certain interests protected (not yours and mine). So one can hope, pray to whatever god may listen or show interest or mercy, that there will be a change for the better on a massive scale. I’m not sure that I posses this faith. I do hope, but do I believe it will happen? Not really. Maybe your prayers will be heard.