Capitalist Health Care

Or the actual lack thereof.

I'm seeing it more and more – Fund raisers for people to be able to afford medical treatments.

In the school where I work a student's family recently held a BBQ so that he could afford medical treatments for the Type 1 diabetes that he suffers from.

A friend of mine from high school has a brother that has MS. The pancake house that the family own is doing a fund raiser this Saturday to help pay for his treatments.

I just saw on the news where a boy needed a special wheelchair so that he could get around on the farm where he raises pigs. He suffers from cerebral palsy (I believe). And for what it is worth – they used a “Go Fund Me” drive and GFM takes a percentage cut of whatever is raised. I've heard that it is in the realm of 10%. To be fair, I am not sure and given that this is for a person's ability to live life, I might get angrier than I already am if the percentage is higher.

There are more stories like this and all of them unnecessary if we had a socialist health care system – a system that was focused more on a person's right to life rather than Wall Street's need for greed or an administrator's need for a new Mercedes or multi-million dollar mansion.

Then again, I had a student complain about socialist health care because he doesn't want to give up his family's “perfectly good high quality” health care. Seriously? He obviously has never dealt with the paperwork his parents have to handle. Scheduling the doctor's appointment, the co-pay due at time of service. Any additional after the fact fees.

And he has never dealt with Emergency Room visits (without the authorization of a doctor) or out of service area visits and costs. These are totally different from in-service areas and participating doctors. His youthful optimism and ignorance is excusable to a degree. Rather than relying on corporate propaganda he should be asking his parents about the health insurance that they have and its inadequacies. Then again, his parents might think it is good too.

I just had a tooth extracted and a partial extended to cover the gap, (Annoying gap at that.) I am going to be shelling out quite a bit for that even though I have (according to the insurance firm) up to $1000 in coverage until the end of June. I have (to date, after the extraction and partial work) $480 left between now and the end of August. 

I could go into the issues facing women's health care issues,  but that would be manspalining and I really would prefer a female to comment on the capitalist system's inability to meet her needs.

So what would a socialist health care plan look like?

We could look at Europe, Canada, the former Soviet Union for examples of what it might look like. From what I have been able to gather about these systems, they work decently when properly funded. People have co-pays for services, but they can go to the doctor that is convenient for them, not to a limited list. And referrals for advanced medical needs are better and easier than over here. (According to my dental plan – after an extraction the replacement of the tooth is optional? Braces for a nice smile? Covered. Replacing a tooth so that the formerly braced teeth can remain looking nice? Optional.)

And out of pocket costs are lower. After all, you are not paying for Wall Street's excesses or some bureaucrat's expensive life style. Look at how much the head of the VA system makes and then look at the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield, Independent Health, or any other privatized health care system. The head of the VA (or even Health and Human Services) makes less than the CEOs (presidents, or totally useless vice presidents) and they provide for more people at a much lower cost.

So, if we are talking about lower costs for health care – we are talking socialism.

If we are talking about providing for a person's needs – we are talking socialism.

If we are talking about a person's ability to live life - we are talking socialism.

So, what's the problem?