Don't Let The Crazy People Win This One

The crazy person always makes the decision, says my husband the divorce lawyer. "If you have two partners--and one is sane and the other crazy--guess who always wins?"

"The one who screams the loudest?" I ask, knowing this because I come from a family of crazy people.

"You betcha."

There are things sane people don't do--like lie, like drag the children into the dispute, like leave for New Zealand with the kids, like rob the joint bank accounts. But the crazy person will do it--and the sane partner is usually left holding the bag. Oh you can sue and sue and sue--but in the end, the kids are wetting their beds, the bank account is gone and the sane partner is on welfare.

That's what I think about the health care ruckus. The Republicans will say just about anything to derail progress. The Democrats are too reticent. Not that they don't have corrupt Blue Dogs with their hands in the pockets of the health care profiteers. They do. But all their talk--and the president's--of compromise is like arguing with a crazy person who will say anything. Forget reasoning. Just push he damn thing through.

OK, I'm not a diplomat or a politician. I haven't got the patience. But it's clear to me that our country's lack of a public option is bankrupting businesses and families. Not only does our tiny one-writer, one-lawyer business pay fortunes for health care for our assistants, housekeeper and ourselves, but any time the health care company makes a mistake, we pay anyway for fear of being cancelled.

Just pay, our broker says--if you hold back your check, they'll cancel you. So for six months last year, I paid full coverage for a fired assistant--though the broker gave me erroneous information.

Companies with 25 employees, not one, are responsible for paying health insurance for a worker who's been fired after six months. The broker was wrong. Blue Cross or Aetna or Oxford--I forget which--held our money for six months and then refused to refund the correct amount. I'm still asking for it. This is what monopolies do.

I'm a lucky cuss--good earning power and a spouse with good earning power--but the health care giants answer to no one. Why should they? They have cornered the market. Unless there is a competing option, they will continue to act like the eight hundred pound gorilla who sits wherever he wants.

This is common sense, not rocket science. If there were no competition in the clothing business, we'd all have to pay $300 for jeans--not just fashionistas. Competition is vital. Especially when life and death are at stake.

So come on Dems, get with the program. We need a public option--or we're gonna have to start a new political party with guts. We could call it the Healthy Party. Or we could move to Canada--or Ireland or Italy or France. We could move almost anywhere and get health care without breaking the bank. What's wrong with the US? The crazy people make the decisions--on health, on guns, on wildlife, on the environment. What stupidity. There's a helluva good universe next door--let's go. (With apologies to ee cummings, who knew insanity when he saw it).

Comments

[James Croteau]

Good observation of the real world, well in the US anyways. Will have to ad it to the reasons I moved away. Thanks.

[kansaswoman]

Did it occur to anyone that the gov works cheaper than the overpaid health insurance bureaucrats? Who is it that is denying the so-called insured care? Don't think it's the government.

[jimmyjams]

As long as you simply title the opposition as "Crazy"- you will continue to lose. - You have housekeepers and assistants? - Grow Up!!! We need Health Insurance Reform #1- We need to make changes but not roll everything into another horrible Stimulus Plan Behemoth that is a simple federal Power Grab.

[xianred]

Please, remind me again - what exactly does the health insurance industry do for us?

[SMAckley]

They take your money. They add no value.

[acaciadad]

Erica says lack of a public option causes our medical system’s financial problems. The Right says Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are the answer. As a former staffer for a Conservative GOP Congressman, I say they won’t help the working poor, who have no money to save.
Those on the Left seem to believe the Government is the solution to everything; but, the UK can't afford to wash bed linens daily. So a patient may get a bed AND linens from a just discharged patient. Private hospitals overseen by regulatory agencies would never get away with that. When it comes to government-run healthcare, ask yourself "Who will guard the guardians?"
I suggest a Federal standard for health insurance, w/ minimum requirements, that allows companies to offer a mix of benefits (as in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program). It would both make health insurance portable and subject to Federal oversight.
For pre-existing conditions, insurers and HHS could contribute to a pool. Those with pre-existing conditions would pay the normal rate, the amount over that paid by the fund. [Actuaries know that those with pre-existing conditions like diabetes and heart problems will usually have more claims than someone without those conditions.]
Those who can't afford insurance would be helped by a fund paid for by both Federal and State governments (States will save on Medicaid outlays). I hope I've shown that Conservatives can propose solutions that are both compassionate and practical.

[DesertShores]

But,but, Erica! Everyone knows your crazy if you think you represent any possible mainstream opinion!

[steel71]

Calling people crazy because they don't agree with you will never win you anything. You just build up the hate even more.

[Level7]

Out of touch with waht has been going on lately?

[Romeover]

True, Steel. However, Ms. Jong isn't calling them crazy because they don't agree with her. She's calling them crazy because they're bats**t crazy.

[alumcreek]

A woman reformer around the turn of the last century was asked why she would never debate her opponents in public. Her answer was that it is impossible to debate if the other person makes up facts on the fly because the truth is a stranger to him or her.

This applies to daaling with America's right wing. The truth must not be permitted to be used to sway anyone. All inconvenient facts must be denounced and buried in BS.

[offred]

The Mob has got to be the business model for health insurance companies: As an individual, you pay $500 a month for protection, but you'll have to pay a lot of money out of hand first in a deductible. Then when you've met the deductible and you try to use your insurance, the insuror will refuse to cover the expense for some reason (maybe you forgot to declare that you were treated for acne 30 years ago). At least if you miss a payment with the mob, they just break your fingers. If you miss a payment with a health care company, they cancel your insurance, you get sicker and sicker, and then you die.

And why don't the anti-reform people realize that the health insurance companies want the government to MANDATE that all citizens buy health care (at noncompetitive prices), unless you're so poor you can't afford to buy any at all? The nonreformers will then complain that the government is FORCING them to pay expensive health insurance premiums to for-profit health insurance companies.

[WorkingClass]

The crazy people are just a distraction. The people who are bribing our so call representatives are the real problem and they are not crazy. They are criminals. The congressional prostitutes that are accepting the bribes are part of the real problem also. They are not crazy either. They are criminals.

[wonketteRAWKS]

Well said!

[AZM]

Sometimes it becomes very difficult to sort out fact from fiction. In those cases, I just look to see who is shouting the loudest. I figure those that work hardest at preventing reasoned discourse are wrong, and they don't want the truth to come out.

[DemoMom]

I'm sick and tired of having everything defined and impacted by the conservative right in this country.
Want environmental laws - nah, can't do that because the right don't want to (those who believe in the end of times idea don't see any point in saving the planet because they're all off to heaven anyway). Want health reform - nah, can't do that either because the conservatives don't want to. Their henchmen on Fox News spread lies and misinformation so they persuade the rest of the country that they don't want it either. We can't get anything done because the right has far too much influence and the Democrats are just too nice!

[mtclem]

Oh my how our perceptions are different. Fox News is changing the minds of the entire United States?? How riduculous does that sound? What are NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN doing? The only problem the left has is with facts. The US government has bankrupted Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, they cannot run a used car rebate program and now you want to give them control of healthcare? you must be very healthy and plan on never getting sick? If you want to know what the real problem with the current healthcare system is look no farther than the government!!! They set mandates that raise the price of a health insurance policy, and do you have any idea why employers offer health insurance?? you got it the government had another Deomcrat in office who tried to "freeze" wages and the employers started offering healthcare to make up the difference. Your plans have been tried over and over and over and over and they never work. It is sad that the most educated among us can't see that the answer to all of the problems are never brought to us by government.

[zola77]

Another wingnut with inane, debunked talking points. One point I will address though,

"Your plans have been tried over and over and over and over and they never work. "

You have had 30 years and have done nothing...but nice tro.l.lish attempt at shifting blame.

[cct1984]

While it is true that the cost of healthcare is higher than it should be, a government-run option, the public option, will only make things worse--cost projections by the CBO backs this up, as do many prominent economists. Sure, a public option will save your particular company money...by off-loading the cost of health insurance onto the backs of taxpayers...but what good is that if we bankrupt the nation in the process? The socialized medical systems in the UK and Canada are broke, out-of-control costs have reached unsustainable levels resulting in large cut-backs in the availability and quality of services. One only has to google the subject to see the truth of that.

If you’re truly interested in bringing down the cost of health insurance, we need only to do a few things: 1) Eliminate mandates that prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. 2) Eliminate mandatory coverages and allow consumers to buy insurance for only those illnesses/­conditions they want to be covered for (the same way you buy your car insurance). 3) Tort reform (this is directly related to defensive medicine and exorbitant medical malpractice insurance--costs that are ultimately passed onto the consumer). 4) Bring the service provider and the person paying the bills--the consumer--closer together. It’s almost axiomatic that consumers are less price conscious when they don’t directly pay for the cost of a good or service. This means reducing the government role.

[maxfax]

Spoken like an employee or lobbyist for insurance companies.

We need real change, reform, taking the profit out of health insurance, if they can't compete with a public option, they should fold, isn't that what capitalism does?

We should be ashamed that people with health insurance have to beg for health care when they get sick.

[babina]

You did not seem worried when the deficit was doubled with tax cuts for the wealthy and Medicare Advantage, both of which were passed using budget reconciliation. They also attempted that with drilling in ANWAR. What a hypocrit!

1) Eliminating mandates and allowing the puchase of HCI over state lines if in other states won't decrease the cost. Without an inexpensive competitor the health care insurance industry will increase rates and out-of-pocket expenses even more. 2) I am really glad someone out there can predict what illness they might contract. Heck, maybe I'll get cancer, or just a cold. This suggestion is ludicrous. 3) Tort Reform: The Be All and End All for Right Wingers and Republicans to Solve the Health Care Insurance Emergency. Another lie. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-j-zaremski/the-last-shall-be-first-k_b_269322.html "theCBO and government studies have published reports indicating that the states' medical-legal liability system only adds .58 of one percent to overall health care costs. .58 of 1% of overall health costs. Hello? How in the heck does lowering medical malpractice insurance for doctors decrease health care insurance costs and ensure patients are being treated fairly? Answer, it won't. 4) Health is a condition, not a commodity.

[Zen0469]

Pack up your irrelevant Fcks Gnus talking points in your bright yellow Health Insurance Corporations bag, tippy-toe out the back door quietly, and when you have truth to report as opposed to insurance company lies, please return.

[benblack75]

The bank bailouts could have paid for single payer many times over, as well as all the money dumped into Iraq and Afghanistan. Better yet- what about the BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars over recent years that have just mysteriously disappeared? What about the disgusting amounts of money we've all lost due to the inflated dollar? Why is it that people trumpet cost concerns disproportionately over something that actually benefits the taxpayer?

[maxfax]

Republicans salivated at the bailouts for banks and Wall Street. Helping Americans is anti-Republican.

[youknowyouwantsome]

It is amazing to me that with all of the options we have that don't cost anything to fix the system, e.g., open up competition between States, tort reform (eliminate punitive damages), require insurance companies to insure all applicants and not exclude pre-existing conditions, and implement the cost savings that have been commited to by the insurance companies and government agencies, that the one option that is focused on is giving more control to the government at the cost of $1 Trillion Dollars. How about doing all of the stuff that is free and if they don't fix the system then let's come back to getting the government involved. Everyday by 12 noon there is $100,000,000 in fraud in the Medicare system based on the government's own figures on the annual cost of fraud in the system. Why in the world would we want the government as the first option to improve the system with their current track record.

[canadianscribe]

Ms. Jong is quite correct when she speaks about moving elsewhere in order to obtain healthcare. Most civilized countries do offer healthcare to their citizens. Is it possible that this whole health care issue is being overthought? It stands to reason that the United States must create a health care program to ensure the nearly 50 million people who currently lack access to medical care. Additionally, it is essential that all individuals receive medical care, regardless of pre-existing conditions. This does not require much thinking if you consider yourself a good neighbour or a responsible citizen -- a good country wants to keeps its citizens safe and healthy. Will America continue to have a fabulous medical system? Undoubtedly. But America must first act to protect its citizens by providing access for all.

[sesquiculus]

Nice straw argument. Yong accurately notes that the craziest person in a divorce action often wins. She then states that anyone disagreeing with her political views is similarly "crazy". Reminds me of the old soviet practice of defining dissent as mental illness and then throwing dissentors in the puzzle factory.
Picking up this theme: Arguando, many of the firearms prohibitionist types have a frank clinical phobia, like that to spiders, heights, etc. They are attempting to turn this phobia into law. It is not "crazy" to resist the political efforts of such people, anymore than if they were attempting to outlaw spiders, heights, or whatever.

[skatscan]

Ray Bolger couldn't have put on a better act than what you just did.