It's something that's come up recently, this notion of privilege.
Am I guilty of it? Am I privileged at all?
The answers are: sort of, and definitely.
I'm white. I'm fairly educated, (or at least self-educated,) I'm (mostly,) cis-gendered.
I keep coming back to thoughts of my own naivete.
I don't see the world the way I'm supposed to.
That, in and of itself, is a privilege.
I was raised to see people as people. Also, to paraphrase George Carlin: Give the average person 5 minutes and they'll give you more than enough reasons to loathe them.
I just don't have the time or energy to hate people on the basis of externals.
How am I not privileged?
I'm female. I'm poor. I'm both a caregiver of a disabled person and have disabilities. I identify as bisexual because I'm attracted to women, although all of my partners/relationships have been with men.
I'm a rape survivor. I have depression and PTSD.
So...
How do we get past the privilege and start dealing with each other as human beings?
How do we not get bogged down in our differences?
I'm not sure.
I do know that ultimately, the things that divide people who are oppressed, are far less important than what unites us.
I know that keeping us all divided serves those in power and so they propagate those divisions.
I know that we should all work on seeing each other as people first.
If I define myself by either my privilege or oppressed status, I become paralyzed. Often I pretend neither exists.
I have to, in order to function on a day-to-day basis.
I know that one thing I hang onto is a quote from Bill Maher, "Either we're all drinking from the same water fountain, or we're not."
Reducing things to the simplest terms, keeps me fighting.
If any one of us is not free, none of us are free.
What doesn't matter to me in my interactions with people: race, ethnicity, gender, income, education, orientation... Putting ourselves and each other into tiny little boxes doesn't help anyone.
We all have specific vulnerabilities, yes.
Why are our own problems more important than anyone else's? "Because they're mine," To quote Ally McBeal. Yes, in our hierarchy of priorities, our problems take precedence. It's first principles at work.
In reality, oppression is oppression.
Can you imagine the tidal wave of humanity, roaring at those in the halls of power, if we could put our differences aside?
We would be an unstoppable force for change.
We need to start thinking like that. As long as we keep to ourselves and remain fragmented, we are weakened. We are powerless. Just the way politicians and corporations like us.
My rights are not damaged by removing the barriers to others' rights.
Freedom benefits everyone.
Except the power structure.
I'm okay with that, really.
Are you?
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Health Care Reform - Exclusions and Compromise
To begin, I don't know all of the details of the current bill. As we're waiting on the House vote, two things seem clear: We're not getting anything close to what, "We the People," need, and the politicization of our identities/bodies, marches on.
The Stupak amendment seems to have passed. This seems to prevent any insurer from covering abortion services.
There is also, (not sure of amendment name,) exclusionary language for services provided to transgendered people.
I feel incredibly naive tonight.
You see, as far as I'm concerned: Abortion is a legitimate medical procedure and a decision that ought be made between doctor and patient. Refusing to cover it amounts to nothing less than reinforcing the notion that women are incapable of being autonomous citizens. Thank you, Congress, for once again reducing my value to that of my uterus.
(Note: The House Bill has just passed. It is completely meaningless.)
The fact that transgendered people are excluded, not just the transition-services, but ultimately, completely excluded as a class, troubles me deeply.
We have, I believe a public option that has a trigger. What's the point? Without a public option providing direct competition to insurers, they have no incentive to change.
We've won nothing except a tick in the win column. We beat the fuckers, now what?
This bill isn't going to help most of us who need it. As a friend just told me, "We only got the door slivered open."
Yes. The trick is to keep our collective foot jammed in that sliver of open door and keep pushing it open.
Fast.
The only real, rational, effective reform possible, is adopting a completely new model. Build on what's been done in France and Germany, perhaps?
We need the safety net of an NHS, but a form of private co-insurance would be fine as well. I don't have a problem with keeping private options available for those who want and can afford them. However, being an ethical human being tells me that access to healthcare is a basic human right.
It's part of what living in a society requires of us.
We are interdependent, we must grant each other at least a minimum opportunity of health and education.
This seems so utterly simple to me. I cannot understand why it is such an anathema to others.
I really can't.
So tonight, while others celebrate the victory, I mourn a missed opportunity. For real reform, for taking our bodies and identities off the table in politics, for meaningful change in Washington. The saddest thing of all, is that it's been four months of political skirmishing, and now there's a win and even the win is meaningless. This bill is not likely to pass the Senate. The health insurance industry is spending 1.4 million dollars a day to ensure it won't.
The Stupak amendment seems to have passed. This seems to prevent any insurer from covering abortion services.
There is also, (not sure of amendment name,) exclusionary language for services provided to transgendered people.
I feel incredibly naive tonight.
You see, as far as I'm concerned: Abortion is a legitimate medical procedure and a decision that ought be made between doctor and patient. Refusing to cover it amounts to nothing less than reinforcing the notion that women are incapable of being autonomous citizens. Thank you, Congress, for once again reducing my value to that of my uterus.
(Note: The House Bill has just passed. It is completely meaningless.)
The fact that transgendered people are excluded, not just the transition-services, but ultimately, completely excluded as a class, troubles me deeply.
We have, I believe a public option that has a trigger. What's the point? Without a public option providing direct competition to insurers, they have no incentive to change.
We've won nothing except a tick in the win column. We beat the fuckers, now what?
This bill isn't going to help most of us who need it. As a friend just told me, "We only got the door slivered open."
Yes. The trick is to keep our collective foot jammed in that sliver of open door and keep pushing it open.
Fast.
The only real, rational, effective reform possible, is adopting a completely new model. Build on what's been done in France and Germany, perhaps?
We need the safety net of an NHS, but a form of private co-insurance would be fine as well. I don't have a problem with keeping private options available for those who want and can afford them. However, being an ethical human being tells me that access to healthcare is a basic human right.
It's part of what living in a society requires of us.
We are interdependent, we must grant each other at least a minimum opportunity of health and education.
This seems so utterly simple to me. I cannot understand why it is such an anathema to others.
I really can't.
So tonight, while others celebrate the victory, I mourn a missed opportunity. For real reform, for taking our bodies and identities off the table in politics, for meaningful change in Washington. The saddest thing of all, is that it's been four months of political skirmishing, and now there's a win and even the win is meaningless. This bill is not likely to pass the Senate. The health insurance industry is spending 1.4 million dollars a day to ensure it won't.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Dear President Obama
Dear Mr. President,
I think you're trying to do what is best, what is right, what will make the United States a better country both for its citizens and as part of the global community. Here's the thing: your job can't be about putting out one fire at a time, be it the economy or wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not naive enough to think that's how you're thinking, but it needed to be said. I sincerely believe that you are looking at the big picture. You know that that picture is both immediate and long term. I'm offering my thoughts, because I know how loud the opposition gets and that sometimes the opposition is in your own party. (Let me add, I've never been polled in my life, most of the people I know haven't, either. So, I think the data is skewed. However, in the course of my job, I've talked to hundreds of Democrats, who btw, really HATE congress and their politicization of issues that are crushing most of us under the heel of corporate america.)
Here's what matters:
1. Health care: most of us are paying obscene amounts of money for benefits we can't afford to use. It's not just seniors choosing between putting food on the table and getting medical care or medicine we need. It's a lot more than the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans who need health care reform. I believe in a free market, but decisions about people's health, well-being, suffering, and life-and-death decisions ought not to be made while looking at a profit margin. The profit margin will always win. Most of us, who aren't being heard, want single-payer. Let's join the rest of the western world in doing the right thing by our citizens, ok?
2. The economy: Right now, there are people buying up life insurance policies and bundling them as commodities, just the way mortgages were bundled. We need better regulations to stop people from doing monumentally stupid things like this. We also need the oversight and regulation to get our money back from the robber barons and schemers who've proceeded to pay out millions of dollars in undeserved bonuses. Sorry, that doesn't fly. We need a new economy that will serve us through this century and the next, based on technology and green jobs.
3. The environment: This is what will get us all in the end. Climate change is already creating numerous problems that we can't solve immediately. I could care less about saving the planet as an entity, but I'd really like to have a habitable environment to live in. The human race is destroying the only home we've got. Clean coal is a myth, nuclear CAN be done safely, and if it's done at all, must be done safely. We've got sun and wind going to waste, in Norway they've got hydrogen refueling stations the size of a refrigerator, and there's no reason other than will, that we can't do this.
4. Equality: You're CIC, sir. You can issue an order allowing LGBT service members to serve openly. Let the military deal with the logistics, but issue the order. It's costing money, (training, skills, etc.,) and it's costing lives, (mostly skills and personnel that we need in the field.) Marriage is so much simpler an issue than people want to admit. Marriage is both a civil contract and religious ceremony. The government must extend equal protection to ALL citizens. Full faith and credit takes care of the rest, if DOMA is thrown out as the unconstitutional instrument that it is. Let the churches decide for themselves about performing the religious ceremonies. We cannot be held hostage to the moral viewpoint of a loud minority. It's about civil rights and human rights. Imagine where we'd be if Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act had been pushed aside as unimportant. Imagine if the military hadn't been integrated along color lines during WWII. Imagine if we'd allowed the south to secede and propagate slavery in the 1860's.
5. Reproductive freedom: We need comprehensive sex-ed. We need doctors and pharmacists to do their jobs. We need women to be fully autonomous members of society. Our bodies are not political issues. We are not chattel. We are not children. If someone can't perform their job because of a moral conflict, they shouldn't have that job. The government cannot continue to endorse the notion that women can be forced to reproduce. It violates equal protection and it violates the 13th amendment.
6. Poverty: Globally, poverty kills more than 10 million people a year. Domestically, more people than ever are living at or below the poverty line, even though the poverty measurement methodologies have not been updated. Just because we aren't counted as poor, doesn't mean that we aren't. You can't survive on the poverty guideline incomes. People around the world can't survive without clean water. My poverty doesn't make me blind to the suffering of others. It makes me understand it in a non-abstract way. We need a living wage in this country, sir. We don't have one yet.
Sir, I trust that you are trying to accomplish as much as you can. I firmly believe that your intent is true. I also know there is an awful lot of shouting going on. Most of us, regular people, people who are scrabbling hand to mouth, with no safety net, are bleeding to death while congress toadies to corporate donors.
We are dying, sir. We are dying of red tape and politics. It's not merely physical death, or economic death, we are experiencing a death of the spirit, the death of dreams, the death of hope.
I could tell you my personal story, but that doesn't matter. I'm one of millions. We are the faceless, voiceless masses who are not seen, are not heard and who bear the brunt of politics meaning more than people. Congress wants to keep getting elected, parties want to win. There's just one thing wrong with that: it's not their job. The job of the Congress and the President is to serve the American people. The job is to uphold the constitution and serve their constituents. Not the corporations, but the people. Why is that so hard a principle to hold onto?
I love my country, but my country is doing nothing to ensure that the entitlement to: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, is being met. Happiness as a pursuit of self-fulfillment, enrichment, liberty from tyranny of others' beliefs, life...life as more than being born, but the ability to live...where is it?
We can be so much better than this, Mr. President. We need the leadership to do it. Government has to be about doing what is right and what is just, more than it is about doing what is popular or convenient.
Please lead us. Please.
Sincerely,
Kristen McHugh
Age 36
Pennsylvania
I think you're trying to do what is best, what is right, what will make the United States a better country both for its citizens and as part of the global community. Here's the thing: your job can't be about putting out one fire at a time, be it the economy or wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not naive enough to think that's how you're thinking, but it needed to be said. I sincerely believe that you are looking at the big picture. You know that that picture is both immediate and long term. I'm offering my thoughts, because I know how loud the opposition gets and that sometimes the opposition is in your own party. (Let me add, I've never been polled in my life, most of the people I know haven't, either. So, I think the data is skewed. However, in the course of my job, I've talked to hundreds of Democrats, who btw, really HATE congress and their politicization of issues that are crushing most of us under the heel of corporate america.)
Here's what matters:
1. Health care: most of us are paying obscene amounts of money for benefits we can't afford to use. It's not just seniors choosing between putting food on the table and getting medical care or medicine we need. It's a lot more than the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans who need health care reform. I believe in a free market, but decisions about people's health, well-being, suffering, and life-and-death decisions ought not to be made while looking at a profit margin. The profit margin will always win. Most of us, who aren't being heard, want single-payer. Let's join the rest of the western world in doing the right thing by our citizens, ok?
2. The economy: Right now, there are people buying up life insurance policies and bundling them as commodities, just the way mortgages were bundled. We need better regulations to stop people from doing monumentally stupid things like this. We also need the oversight and regulation to get our money back from the robber barons and schemers who've proceeded to pay out millions of dollars in undeserved bonuses. Sorry, that doesn't fly. We need a new economy that will serve us through this century and the next, based on technology and green jobs.
3. The environment: This is what will get us all in the end. Climate change is already creating numerous problems that we can't solve immediately. I could care less about saving the planet as an entity, but I'd really like to have a habitable environment to live in. The human race is destroying the only home we've got. Clean coal is a myth, nuclear CAN be done safely, and if it's done at all, must be done safely. We've got sun and wind going to waste, in Norway they've got hydrogen refueling stations the size of a refrigerator, and there's no reason other than will, that we can't do this.
4. Equality: You're CIC, sir. You can issue an order allowing LGBT service members to serve openly. Let the military deal with the logistics, but issue the order. It's costing money, (training, skills, etc.,) and it's costing lives, (mostly skills and personnel that we need in the field.) Marriage is so much simpler an issue than people want to admit. Marriage is both a civil contract and religious ceremony. The government must extend equal protection to ALL citizens. Full faith and credit takes care of the rest, if DOMA is thrown out as the unconstitutional instrument that it is. Let the churches decide for themselves about performing the religious ceremonies. We cannot be held hostage to the moral viewpoint of a loud minority. It's about civil rights and human rights. Imagine where we'd be if Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act had been pushed aside as unimportant. Imagine if the military hadn't been integrated along color lines during WWII. Imagine if we'd allowed the south to secede and propagate slavery in the 1860's.
5. Reproductive freedom: We need comprehensive sex-ed. We need doctors and pharmacists to do their jobs. We need women to be fully autonomous members of society. Our bodies are not political issues. We are not chattel. We are not children. If someone can't perform their job because of a moral conflict, they shouldn't have that job. The government cannot continue to endorse the notion that women can be forced to reproduce. It violates equal protection and it violates the 13th amendment.
6. Poverty: Globally, poverty kills more than 10 million people a year. Domestically, more people than ever are living at or below the poverty line, even though the poverty measurement methodologies have not been updated. Just because we aren't counted as poor, doesn't mean that we aren't. You can't survive on the poverty guideline incomes. People around the world can't survive without clean water. My poverty doesn't make me blind to the suffering of others. It makes me understand it in a non-abstract way. We need a living wage in this country, sir. We don't have one yet.
Sir, I trust that you are trying to accomplish as much as you can. I firmly believe that your intent is true. I also know there is an awful lot of shouting going on. Most of us, regular people, people who are scrabbling hand to mouth, with no safety net, are bleeding to death while congress toadies to corporate donors.
We are dying, sir. We are dying of red tape and politics. It's not merely physical death, or economic death, we are experiencing a death of the spirit, the death of dreams, the death of hope.
I could tell you my personal story, but that doesn't matter. I'm one of millions. We are the faceless, voiceless masses who are not seen, are not heard and who bear the brunt of politics meaning more than people. Congress wants to keep getting elected, parties want to win. There's just one thing wrong with that: it's not their job. The job of the Congress and the President is to serve the American people. The job is to uphold the constitution and serve their constituents. Not the corporations, but the people. Why is that so hard a principle to hold onto?
I love my country, but my country is doing nothing to ensure that the entitlement to: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, is being met. Happiness as a pursuit of self-fulfillment, enrichment, liberty from tyranny of others' beliefs, life...life as more than being born, but the ability to live...where is it?
We can be so much better than this, Mr. President. We need the leadership to do it. Government has to be about doing what is right and what is just, more than it is about doing what is popular or convenient.
Please lead us. Please.
Sincerely,
Kristen McHugh
Age 36
Pennsylvania
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Strange Bedfellows, or:How I learned to stop worrying and love the block
It is a truism that politics makes for some strange bedfellows. I've stopped trying. I used to be willing to engage with conscientious, thoughtful, reasonable people of opposing views. Unfortunately, since the forum I'm speaking of is Twitter.com and it's led by the prerogative of those who follow you... Occasionally, the nut jobs spoiling for a fight find me. I've learned how to block preemptively. It is good. (You have to go to the profile page and click on "block user" in the sidebar. Wheeee.)
Things my mother taught me: Refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person, never bring a knife to a gunfight and never, ever, ever act stupid to make people like you. Unless they're in a trade you need: mechanic, plumber, electrician. (I fail at this, by the way: acting stupid... Fail. Fail. Fail.)
I tried to play nice. I followed my President's example and tried to find common ground with the conservatives. Actually, this is not hard, in principle: I want less government, (quit telling me what to do with my body, who and how I can fuck and what substances I'm allowed to imbibe as an adult. Kthxbai.) I want lower taxes, (since there are plenty of super-rich people who can afford higher taxes.) I like the bill of rights, all of them. Including the 2nd Amendment. (Really.)
Roosevelt conservatives believe in good stewardship and conservation of wildlife and environment, efficient spending and service. I believe in those things.
Tragically, the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt has been hijacked by xenophobic fascists who don't have the brains god gave a turnip but who think that EVERYONE must do as they say.
Fuck that.
I've gotten cranky after 8 years of being called a traitor and harassment for having an opposing point of view from the jingoistic rah-rah flag-waving contingent.
Uh...'Scuse me: This country was founded upon the principles of dissent, and a revolt against the government in power. Do these people read or understand history? Have they read the constitution?
Equal Protection. The outlawing of Slavery and Indentured Servitude. The anti-establishment clause... Yo, people, get a clue.
I want President Obama to take a step back, think, "Hey, I won. We won. Let's get this done already."
I want him to whip the blue dogs into line, put 'em on a choke chain and get the job done.
I want him to stop trying to placate people who will gladly whip their base into a frenzy that could very well end in violence, just to get reelected and DO WHAT WE ELECTED HIM TO DO.
In the meantime, the only strange bedfellows I'm interested in are the kind the right-wing would like to see in jail for being abominations. I've learned to stop worrying and love the block.
Things my mother taught me: Refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person, never bring a knife to a gunfight and never, ever, ever act stupid to make people like you. Unless they're in a trade you need: mechanic, plumber, electrician. (I fail at this, by the way: acting stupid... Fail. Fail. Fail.)
I tried to play nice. I followed my President's example and tried to find common ground with the conservatives. Actually, this is not hard, in principle: I want less government, (quit telling me what to do with my body, who and how I can fuck and what substances I'm allowed to imbibe as an adult. Kthxbai.) I want lower taxes, (since there are plenty of super-rich people who can afford higher taxes.) I like the bill of rights, all of them. Including the 2nd Amendment. (Really.)
Roosevelt conservatives believe in good stewardship and conservation of wildlife and environment, efficient spending and service. I believe in those things.
Tragically, the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt has been hijacked by xenophobic fascists who don't have the brains god gave a turnip but who think that EVERYONE must do as they say.
Fuck that.
I've gotten cranky after 8 years of being called a traitor and harassment for having an opposing point of view from the jingoistic rah-rah flag-waving contingent.
Uh...'Scuse me: This country was founded upon the principles of dissent, and a revolt against the government in power. Do these people read or understand history? Have they read the constitution?
Equal Protection. The outlawing of Slavery and Indentured Servitude. The anti-establishment clause... Yo, people, get a clue.
I want President Obama to take a step back, think, "Hey, I won. We won. Let's get this done already."
I want him to whip the blue dogs into line, put 'em on a choke chain and get the job done.
I want him to stop trying to placate people who will gladly whip their base into a frenzy that could very well end in violence, just to get reelected and DO WHAT WE ELECTED HIM TO DO.
In the meantime, the only strange bedfellows I'm interested in are the kind the right-wing would like to see in jail for being abominations. I've learned to stop worrying and love the block.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Health Care Reform and the Politics of Fear, part deux
I repeat: If anyone has questions about Health Care and why a Public Option (weak)/NHS or hybrid Model, (i.e., France,) is better...Let me know. I worked in Health Insurance, specifically a Medicaid/Medicare/SCHIP HMO for 8+ yrs. I know what I'm talking about. I had a license to sell insurance, which is way more complicated than you think and I passed the test on the first try. I'm not stupid. Seriously.
Medicare is socialized medicine. So is Medicaid. Medicare, for seniors, is administered in an efficient and humane fashion. Medicaid is for bums, (or so the right-wing would have us believe,) sucking at the government teat and wasting our tax dollars.
Bullshit.
No, Bullshit. Really.
If Medicaid were administered efficiently, sick people would get the care they need, there would be no stigma attached to it and hey, people who need temporary help might get back to being productive citizens.
That's just crazy talk, in this country.
What nearly all the republican, (and some of the democrats,) in congress don't want you to know :The health insurance, for-profit treatment and pharmaceutical industries rank up there with Big Oil, Coal, Agribusiness and Military Contractors when it comes to who has them on a short leash. Campaign contributions...Money *is* speech, according to capitol hill. Riiiiggghhhtt.
Pull the other leg, it's got bells on it.
You say that NHS/Universal Health Care/Single-payer will DOOM the free market in this country?
Really? Last I checked, you take what health insurance you're offered if you're lucky enough to have an employer offering it and you can afford to pay for it. How is that a free market from the consumer's perspective? Oh, it's not supposed to be free for the consumer... Never mind.
You say that NHS/UHC/SP will put an undue burden on employers to offer more direct compensation?
Really? How about this: If I'm not spending 30% of my income keeping my ass covered by crappy insurance just in case something really, really bad happens to me, my kid, my partner... I might actually feel better about my salary and I might be spending money on other stuff. Hey, that could help the economy, couldn't it?
I could, (and at some point, probably will,) go on and on and on...
Hopefully, you're starting to get the picture.
Ask me questions, I'll answer them in a blog. Really.
Medicare is socialized medicine. So is Medicaid. Medicare, for seniors, is administered in an efficient and humane fashion. Medicaid is for bums, (or so the right-wing would have us believe,) sucking at the government teat and wasting our tax dollars.
Bullshit.
No, Bullshit. Really.
If Medicaid were administered efficiently, sick people would get the care they need, there would be no stigma attached to it and hey, people who need temporary help might get back to being productive citizens.
That's just crazy talk, in this country.
What nearly all the republican, (and some of the democrats,) in congress don't want you to know :The health insurance, for-profit treatment and pharmaceutical industries rank up there with Big Oil, Coal, Agribusiness and Military Contractors when it comes to who has them on a short leash. Campaign contributions...Money *is* speech, according to capitol hill. Riiiiggghhhtt.
Pull the other leg, it's got bells on it.
You say that NHS/Universal Health Care/Single-payer will DOOM the free market in this country?
Really? Last I checked, you take what health insurance you're offered if you're lucky enough to have an employer offering it and you can afford to pay for it. How is that a free market from the consumer's perspective? Oh, it's not supposed to be free for the consumer... Never mind.
You say that NHS/UHC/SP will put an undue burden on employers to offer more direct compensation?
Really? How about this: If I'm not spending 30% of my income keeping my ass covered by crappy insurance just in case something really, really bad happens to me, my kid, my partner... I might actually feel better about my salary and I might be spending money on other stuff. Hey, that could help the economy, couldn't it?
I could, (and at some point, probably will,) go on and on and on...
Hopefully, you're starting to get the picture.
Ask me questions, I'll answer them in a blog. Really.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Health Care reform and the politics of fear
I spent more than 8 years working in the Health Insurance industry. Ask me anything, I'll tell you the truth. 1997, the year when privatized Medicaid came into vogue. States were hemmoraghing red ink from their budgets. HMO's seemed like a reasonable alternative. It worked for the general public, after all. When I started working for Company X, I was young, broke, stupid and the head of a household that was barely holding on. We'd just barely managed to keep the house after my grandmother died. $7.50 an hour, plus commission seemed like a good deal. It was, actually. I doubled the value of my annual wages inside of 10 months. I also felt like I was serving a purpose. I was helping people. In the beginning, the benefits were actually far better than what Medicaid offered. A win-win scenario: Save the state money and help people.
Over the course of the next 8 years, it became more about maximizing profits and less about serving either of our clients. Irony of ironies, my health insurance was worse than the plan's members. Eventually, Company X had contracts in 3 states, about 500k members and was making 20 million dollars a quarter as a privately held company.
I was making 36k a year, and I was miserable.
Here's why:
1. If you're on Medicaid, chances are you're either desperately poor or you have a debilitating health condition. (There are a lot of nuns on Medicaid, btw. Seems that priests get taken care of by the diocese and nuns are left to fend for themselves.) We're talking about people who are mostly in vulnerable economic strata and often don't know how to advocate for themselves. Add profound illness on top of that and you've got a member pool already hanging by a thread.
2. Doctors. Yes we've all got to wait too long and finding the right doctor is a pain, but if a doctor provides services, they deserve to be paid in a timely fashion, without dispute. This does not happen with HMO's.
3. Red tape. Covered physicians, referrals, out of network authorizations, authorizations for procedures, drug formularies, brand-name authorizations, non-formulary letters of medical necessity...(I could go on, but it's endless.) Providers spend more time dealing with beauracracy than patients. Tell me that's not compromising patient care. Ha.
4. Routine denial of care. Everything that's not a covered service or routine diagnostic test is denied pro forma. So are non-formulary drugs. Period. In the hopes that either your provider will do something that is covered or that you'll be too sick, too helpless or too stupid to fight.
5. HMO's make money based on the number of members they have. Each member = x number of dollars per month whether you get services or not. The fewer services you have, the more of that money goes towards bulking up the profit margin.
All of the things the right-wing chorus of, "No," is saying will happen with a Govt-run plan are exactly what's happening every day in this country. Only, we're paying for it and we can't even afford to use it. Health care is a basic human right and it contributes to the public good. It's also economically smart. A national health care system would force commercial plans to become more competitive and actually provide what their members pay for. It would relieve the pressure small business owners are bearing the brunt of and we'd have a healthier populace.
Does anyone have any questions?
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