HEALTH INSURANCE is LIFE INSURANCE
Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans now, once again, are determined to destroy widely available, affordable health insurance in the United States. It's now long past time for the American public to face two realities that have escaped serious public attention. First, above all else, is a reality that’s been long understood by the rest of the civilized world, that the health care of any nation’s people is as critical a function of government, as the services of Police, Firefighters and Public Education. The health of a nation’s people defines its ability to function, to mature, to expand, and to face any obstacle to its survival. Our quality of life is a direct reflection of our quality of health. Even the Preamble of our Constitution includes our governmental mandate “to Promote the General Welfare“.
Within these understandings, the rest of the world has adopted some form of Universal Health Care, as a cornerstone of its governmental functioning. Many have been doing so for more than a century! Germany had established Universal Health Care under the Kaiser. That system then survived World War I - and the Weimar Republic - survived the Nazis and World War II, and thrives to this day. Even Cuba has a Universal Health Care system. Yet the closest we’ve been able to come to such a benefit to OUR citizens, has been the ACA - which the Republican Congress is now determined to trash. But the question now is why?
The answer to that seems to have evaded almost everyone, but I feel it can be found in the single word - “PRIVATIZATION”. Those who’d crush the ACA are the same people who’ve labored so diligently, for decades, to turn every basic government service, from the Post Office to prisons and to schools, into private businesses for the profit of the highest bidders. In this instance, private insurance companies have positioned themselves between the public, in need of health care, and the facilities which provide it. More than that, the profits of those insurance companies have then been used to buy the politicians, who’d then pass laws to guarantee their control. How profitable is the health insurance industry? Profitable enough to pay an insurance company CEO a salary of up to $50,000 PER DAY!
The open secret that they hope no one will notice, is the simple fact that Universal Health Care, as now practiced everywhere in the world except here, is an should be a function of government, as a right to every one of their citizens, without profit! That’s right, a health insurance system functioning without profit!
Now, another open secret, is that a profitless marketplace akin to sacrilege in a society where the one true religion is Capitalism, such as it is in this country. With all things political, the ability to spend money secretly (outside of the public view, i.e. a private business) is where corruption flourishes. Campaign finance is, while on a different end of the "public good" spectrum, a prime example of this system of corruption at work. Privatize the flow of money so that it does not need to be reported to the public, then allow that money to be used to buy votes and influence. This only benefits the system of cronyism, not the system of democracy and general welfare of the citizens of these United States
Yet there is a second hellish consequence to be faced, with the destruction of ACA. The abandonment of ACA is predicted to throw millions of Americans out the insured health-care pool. Without the essential health care which those people will lose, the likelihood that thousands of Americans will die needlessly increases dramatically. And why? For nothing more than the greed of a few charged to serve the best interest of the many.