CallaFirestormBW
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... and that is the biggest issue. When health care is being run "for profit", rather than as a public service to maintain the health of the community and sustain the infrastructure, the people who can't afford the 'for profit' solution are -still- going to be left out in the cold, on long waiting lists, and unable to get treatment for their illness. What is sad is that, even for the people like me who -do- pay for "premium 'for profit'" care, we are -regularly- denied treatments our medical practitioners tell us we need, have to wait for procedures, and have HUGE co-pays and payments for costs of procedures beyond what the insurance companies agree is the "allowable charge" (ie., the absolute minimum we can get away with paying for this without looking like the theives that we are).
Call it socialism or whatever nasty name you want, because I refuse to succumb to propagandizing labels meant to do nothing but encourage the idea that EVERYTHING should be for sale, and if you're not willing to sell it or buy it, you're obviously not a "good American". It seems to me that health care isn't something that should be run 'for profit'. There are so many ways to make money that it seems to me that caring for peoples' health should be one of those things we do because we want to heal people, or want to improve lives, or want to do something good for society. I guess I don't understand how we lost our capacity for compassion and our interest in healing as an integral part of shaping a community, rather than as a tool for padding pockets at the expense of human lives. To me, that shows a measure of inculcated greed that is just unfathomable, in my mind (though it seems to make perfect sense to some other folks). Of course, when I was doing births, I accepted payment to cover costs and living expenses, and especially when I was working in Alaska, and dealt with a lot of subsistence hunters and fishing families, a side of elk or 100 lbs of salmon or halibut for the freezer was just as good, to me, as $300 + transportation costs to deliver a baby, and if a family didn't have anything, I had no issue with taking them on just because I didn't want to see them have to go through the process without a professional present if they wanted one. To me, how much money you have shouldn't be the deciding factor of whether you get the care you need to live a relatively healthy life and whether you're able to get treatment for illnesses or accidents.
As an addendum, I think that there are some things that should remain "for profit" and which universal health care shouldn't pay for... things like face-lifts or other cosmetic problems that are -not- done to alleviate gross deformity or health issues (for example, I think that plastic surgery to remove excess skin after extreme weight loss should be a covered procedure, but a tummy-tuck for bikini season should be an optional procedure that a person pays for out of pocket. In the same way, plastic surgery to repair a harelip should be covered by universal health care, but collagen injections for the lips should be strictly 'out of pocket'). These areas would provide a field where, I suppose, if a person were in the medical field for the money, xhe could still make a rather prodigious income... and I suppose that, if insurance companies wanted to tap into that, they could sell things like "Age-Minimizing Insurance" and "Figure-Enhancement Insurance". I'm ambivalent about things like IVF. In general, I think that if a couple can't have children, there are -so- many kids who need families that really, IVF and its ilk are sort of "luxury" procedures to me -- but I suppose that if a doctor could provide a good medical reason why IVF was a necessity and not a luxury, that a particular case could be covered. I guess I just don't think that things like IVF should be -routinely- covered.
Dame Calla
< Message edited by CallaFirestormBW -- 7/16/2009 7:55:21 AM >
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