This is a follow-up from last Wednesday’s post when there were 2 separate healthcare related breaking news items. The United Healthcare CEO who was shot and the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield only paying for X amount of anesthesia for any given case. And the insurance company solves for X.
The entire US was on edge and reacting to both these news items ALL WEEK LONG.
On Friday, December 6th, Anthem came out and rescinded the suddenly toxic policy. You know what dispells gloom in a fairy tale? Or what gets rid of mold in the house? Light. If you shine light on an issue the rats will run. Yes, I am aware that I am mixing my metaphors. The sentiment is true. If we pay enough attention to the shitty things that corporations do, we might be able to stop some of their worst impulses as they chase profit.
I have additional thoughts.
The reaction to the shooting and subsequent death has been fascinating. It has been the man is dead, yes, his wife widowed, yes, and his children half-orphaned yes. But people are flipping the script and talking about how many people have died because of the policies that enriched the insurance companies. Some people are even sharing what happened to them or a loved one. The stories of denial of care are heartbreaking.
Can we have compassion for his family? Yes. Can we hate what he worked and stood for? Another yes. Does the American public who has had their care nickeled and dimed for years have sympathy? Not many, and more would sooner have sympathy for the devil.
No American, not even a rich, conservative Ivy graduate like the accused, hasn’t been harmed or denied by the privatized healthcare in this country.
Note- he has only been charged, there has been no trial, and he is fighting extradition back to New York.
The First Rule of Acquisition is once you have their money, you never give it back. Sounds a lot like healthcare in the US does it not?
I am referring, of course, to the 285 Rules of Acquisition that were set out and explored on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
If they can deny and delay and deny and delay and outlast you, the insurance companies don’t have to pay and they get to keep the money. For whatever it is you want them to pay for, all they have to do is make up arcane rules that the consumer unknowingly violates. Oh, they don’t tell you what the rules are. That would be cheating.
Kind of reminds me of “ignorance of the law is no excuse”; which is a legal principle.
The question remains- which one is the devil?
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 