Skip to main content

Health Care Dreaming



I am having a difficult time understanding what the problem is with fixing our present health care system. When Benjamin Franklin helped form the first fire insurance company in 1752, all policy holders paid the same premium in to the company. When any individual suffered a fire, the company reimbursed him for his loss. It was a simple idea, and it worked.
There was no thought of earning a profit. Why should there be? As I understand it, the function of an insurance company is to process claims. Period. It is supposed to be a mutual thing, designed for the benefit of the policy holders. Make a profit for helping people? Give me a break! Did the good Samaritan send a bill for helping the injured stranger? No, he actually paid the innkeeper to look after the man.
I realize that capitalists do not do things that way, but we are not talking about a product here; we are talking about promoting the general welfare as spelled out in the Preamble to the Constitution.
There is a lot of hesitation about a “public option;” the  idea that the government pays the bills. It would compete with private companies – perhaps even force them out of business. So what? All of the profits they are presently enjoying would go toward lower premiums. The government’s aim would be to break even – not make a profit.
But wouldn’t all those employees become unemployed if the public option is adopted? No – claims would still need to be processed, and the processors would work for the government. Those insurance company employees whose job it is to invent profit-making schemes would have to look elsewhere for work. Perhaps they could find employment with a Bernie Madoff knockoff.
I know I have vastly oversimplified the way out of the current health care mess,  but I am sure there is a much simpler solution out there, and nobody seems to be looking for it.
Wouldn’t it be great if our elected representatives suddenly decided to do what is right for the country, instead of what is right for their reelection? Dream on, Glenn.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There Are Only Seven Jokes - Introduction

      The statement “There are only seven jokes – all the rest are variations,” has been around for a long time, but no one ever seems to know what the original seven are. I think I have found the solution to the mystery.       The answer is to be found in an article published in the New York Times on May 2, 1909. Entitled “New Jokes? There Are No New Jokes, There Is Only One Joke,” it goes on to say that all jokes are a distortion, and lists seven categories of distortion. Supposedly every joke will fit into one of the categories. I believe that repetition changed the seven categories into the seven jokes.       Each of my next seven blogs will be devoted to exploring one of the categories. In addition, I shall attempt to give an example or two of jokes which I think fit the category.       You must realize that this article appeared over one hundred years ago, so most of the jokes a...
Post a Comment
Read more

By Today’s Standards Many of my Teachers Would be in Jail

I started school in a two-room building: grades 1 to 4 in one room; grades 5 to 8 in the other. One teacher in each room taught all four grades. I don’t remember first grade very well – the teacher left at the end of the year. I am pretty sure it was not my fault. Now keep in mind that reading the Bible every morning was the standard for all grades at that time. But my teacher in grades two to four went a little above and beyond the normal practice. As a member of a “plain” sect, she considered it her duty to lead the little heathens to Christianity. She offered a free Bible to all students who managed to memorize 20 verses. I memorized my verses – “Jesus saves” was my favorite because it was the shortest – and got my Bible with my twenty underlined in red. That would be illegal today (not the underlining), and rightly so. Teachers may not teach religion, although contrary to what many folks seem to think, students may bring their Bibles to school, read them, and pray their...
Post a Comment
Read more

Capitalism And Socialism

      Capitalism: An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.*       The basic idea underlying a capitalistic system is that of individual ownership and control of the assets of commerce. Using one’s innate abilities, energy, ideas, etc. to better oneself is the driving force, and success or failure is measured by the bottom line. The “rugged individual” and the “small entrepreneur” are the natural heroes. Individual freedom is paramount.       Unfortunately, unbridled incentive can lead to unbridled greed, which if followed far enough, can bring down the system. Let me give you an example:       When you buy a life insurance policy, you are buying a contract under which t...
Post a Comment
Read more