Realitology
“The Study of Reality”
Warning! This Blog Contains Social Commentary, Brilliant Observations, Dry Wit, and Rampant Sarcasm. Use At Your Own Risk.
Posted American Dream, Economics, Environment, Healthcare, Humanity, Philosophy, Politics, Society on Friday, June 13th, 2008.
Comments(2)
Posted American Dream, Business, Economics, Healthcare, Humanity, Politics on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008. Comments(0)
Since healthcare is the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the US, you’d think it would have been more of a forefront issue over the years —especially for those right-wing-types who seem to live by the rule that money is all that matters. Healthcare has been on the minds of Americans for the past few years but it’s been one of those political "third-rails" so politicians have been largely scared to touch it. (Remember how Hillary was crucified a few years ago for her "socialist" health care plan.)
The tide seems to have shifted and it seems that people are finally starting to demand that this healthcare mess be solved. Just so you know where I stand, I don’t think that healthcare should be a for-profit enterprise. When Humana et al came in and started running healthcare as a business with only the bottom-line as the goal, healthcare began a monumental shift to taking care of Wall Street instead of taking care of people.
As a sign that things are indeed shifting, one of the most powerful lobyist groups has taken on the issue. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has created a website called DividedWeFail.org where they take on the issues and the politicians. You can sign petitions, tell your congress people how you feel, and get involved in other ways if you’re interested.
The org is non-partisan as their logo illustrates:
Check it out. Make your voice heard.
As an aside – I just heard John McCain unveil his healthcare plan today. In short, it’s a whole lot of nothing. A whole lot of business-as-usual. I’m not so sure about Barak and Hillary’s plans either, but their proposals are still a hell of a lot better than what we’ve got now.
John McCain’s healthcare plan
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Barack Obama’s healthcare plan
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Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan
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Regardless of your political persuasion, I hope that we can all agress that the current healthcare system has to change. Healthcare costs are rising at twice the rate of inflation and have been for years, meanwhile the health of the US citizen as a whole has been greatly degraded.
The US has the worlds most expensive healthcare system and yet our system is rated #37 in the world by the world health organization (WHO).
Here’s a report from the university of Maine about the sorry state of the US healthcare system. It’s from 2001 and you know things have only gotten worse. It again outlines that we have the most expensive healthcare system in the world (by far) but also interesting nuggets such as the US ranking #26 for infant mortality rates in the industrialized world. (That’s 26 from the top).
To sum it all up—the US healthcare system sucks for everyone except the insurance companies and drug manufacturers and the politicians they pay off. It’s time for a change. DEMAND IT!
Posted Business, Healthcare on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007.
Comments(4)
No this is not the obvious joke. Of course insurance companies are snakes. Everyone knows that! This is about a real life experience.
A while back I posted about the fucked up nature of the US healthcare system. This is a bit of a continuation of that theme. A bit of backstory…I take two prescription medications and am having a helluva time getting health insurance from the greedy and corrupt insurance companies. As it stands now I’m in limbo. I can’t get covered under an "underwritten" plan so I have to go with a HIPAA plan—a government mandated plan that forces the greedy and corrupt insurance companies to cover people they don’t want to. Of course it’s 5x more expensive than a regular plan and Blue Cross of California has had me in limbo for 5 weeks as they "process" the plan. (Funny how it only took them a week to process and deny me for the regular plan.) Did I mention that insurance companies are greedy and corrupt snakes?
Posted Business, Healthcare, Politics, Society on Friday, June 15th, 2007.
Comments(5)
Yeah I know that’s no shocking news is it?
You hear about it on the news and every once in a while our politicians pay lip service to fixing the problem. But from where I stand it keeps getting worse and worse and it’s hitting closer to home.
Several months ago my friend’s company shut down so he and his family (wife and 4 kids) lost their insurance. Sure, in theory they could have bought COBRA insurance but that would have cost them more than $1000 a month. $1000 a month is a big chunk o’ change anyway, but when you’ve just been laid off it becomes that much more unfeasible.
Luckilly, they’ve been healthy and haven’t had any major sickness or accidents. But they and the other 46 million uninsured in America (as of April 2007) are just one accident away from bankruptcy. Healthcare costs are the top cause of bankruptcy in the United States. It’s sickening. (No pun intended.)
