Government-operated healthcare is the only way to ensure that everyone can not actually just afford healthcare, but actually be accepted for it.
I can afford healthcare. However, I don't have any because there is not an insurance company in the entire country that will take me. Not even for a catastrophic plan. This is the problem with corporations running insurance. I am seen as a risk to their profits, not as a human being. And economically, healthcare should never have been a privatized business in the first place, just like fire, police, etc. Healthcare is a public issue with public concerns (infectious diseases, unemployment, etc.) which is ill-served by private corporations with profit motives and ultimately costs everyone more in the long-run.
Part of the reason that some government-run things don't run as well as they should right now is because they have been gutted, underfunded, and deliberately rendered incompetent over the past 8 years so that the people in power could say, "Look, government doesn't work! Only privatization works! Plz sell my friend here a contract to run this privately."
And even though privatization results in even more incompetent operation, it matters little to them, because they can manipulate it for maximized profits without once pausing to think about how it serves anyone they're supposed to be serving.
And government is never going to be perfect. There will always be issues and unfairnesses. But the issues and unfairness of PRIVATE CORPORATIONS far outweigh these issues. The fact that unemployed and already disabled or ill Americans cannot get insurance is unconscionable. The way most HMOs function is unconscionable. The fact that insurance companies seek the slightest loophole to deny coverage is unconscionable. The way people can go into millions of dollars of debt or bankruptcy if they become ill while uninsured is unconscionable. Tossing those who cannot pay out into the street is unconscionable.
I don't see how, given all these things, government-run health insurance is the bad alternative or a big and scary thing. Almost every other country in the world, even third world countries, has public healthcare. And it has its problems, but it still works better than this.
P.S. I am not a Clinton supporter, but for other reasons.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 11:07 pm (UTC)I can afford healthcare. However, I don't have any because there is not an insurance company in the entire country that will take me. Not even for a catastrophic plan. This is the problem with corporations running insurance. I am seen as a risk to their profits, not as a human being. And economically, healthcare should never have been a privatized business in the first place, just like fire, police, etc. Healthcare is a public issue with public concerns (infectious diseases, unemployment, etc.) which is ill-served by private corporations with profit motives and ultimately costs everyone more in the long-run.
Part of the reason that some government-run things don't run as well as they should right now is because they have been gutted, underfunded, and deliberately rendered incompetent over the past 8 years so that the people in power could say, "Look, government doesn't work! Only privatization works! Plz sell my friend here a contract to run this privately."
And even though privatization results in even more incompetent operation, it matters little to them, because they can manipulate it for maximized profits without once pausing to think about how it serves anyone they're supposed to be serving.
And government is never going to be perfect. There will always be issues and unfairnesses. But the issues and unfairness of PRIVATE CORPORATIONS far outweigh these issues. The fact that unemployed and already disabled or ill Americans cannot get insurance is unconscionable. The way most HMOs function is unconscionable. The fact that insurance companies seek the slightest loophole to deny coverage is unconscionable. The way people can go into millions of dollars of debt or bankruptcy if they become ill while uninsured is unconscionable. Tossing those who cannot pay out into the street is unconscionable.
I don't see how, given all these things, government-run health insurance is the bad alternative or a big and scary thing. Almost every other country in the world, even third world countries, has public healthcare. And it has its problems, but it still works better than this.
P.S. I am not a Clinton supporter, but for other reasons.