Greetings from
The Publisher . . .
Driving Across Country & Health Care
I had a very interesting month in July. I flew to Miami and drove back in a car that my good friends— my ex-wife and her husband— decided not to take to Singapore . Marlene and her husband Richard Martin, who writes financial columns for TLC, have moved there. It's too long a story for this issue, but what it meant to me is that I drove back from Miami with a car full of light bulbs, electric extension cords, lamps and electronic equipment. Singapore does not use the same type of electricity, so she has to start over with new equipment—tough task for a former musician. So I became the beneficiary of a lot of great equipment. It was quite amazing and very generous of them—and very appreciated.
It was quite a trip for me. I stopped at places I've never seen: Miami , South Beach , and New Orleans ' French Quarter. I stayed in Shreveport for several days with a couple I've known for years—transplants from Newport Beach .
They've lived in Shreveport for years and recently bought 45 acres near there.
A healing center and some type of healthy farm are in the formative, idea-collecting stages. They are looking at the possibilities and we had a great time brainstorming and taking pictures. It was healing for me just being there and exploring the 45 acres. That's a huge amount of space!
Thankfully, I was on a schedule that allowed me to stay longer when I wanted. As I always do, I picked up newspapers along the way. Over and over I read about challenges with local budgets and services—especially health care.
It was encouraging to notice in an El Paso paper that they had just selected the first class of a new medical school there. Roughly one quarter of the 40 new students had roots in the local Hispanic community and planned to practice where they grew up.
I didn't need signs to tell me I was getting close to San Diego . In addition to being drier, the gas was 40-45 cents higher than anywhere on my trip.
I had to wonder how far that 40–45 cents per gallon would go towards funding a public healthcare option for San Diego . How many years has it been like that? Could we build a hospital or three from a few months' profits? They charge what the market will bear, they say—meaning what we are willing to bear, I think.
All the health-care talk has really brought to light business practices and how well they fit a health-care system.
The top business schools teach MBAs that the way to top profits is to cut wages—go to Mexico or Asia and pay people 10 cents an hour to build cars. If only one company did it, no doubt that would be profitable. When every auto company does, who can buy the cars?
These schools may as well be teaching us about art found on a Pacific island that no one has seen for thousands of years. How does it affect everything else? To know a little about the world, don't you have to know how things interact? They don't seem to notice or care how one thing affects another. Is it okay for a “business” to focus solely on making a profit, since they are doing it “altruistically,” for their shareholders?
Isn't it time to wonder about the idea that you're really a success when you can drive your competition out of business? If competition is good, why eliminate it? Well, we are revisiting lot of assumptions these days. Do we want a health-care system that works like that, with big companies gobbling up and pushing out smaller competitors?
Can health care have the same focus on profits and shareholders and still provide health care? Can we think in terms of allotments, as in, that's your share—your cut off. Or do we provide and think, “There, but for the grace of God, go I?” There have been a lot of revelations about our systems of late. SICKO had to be devastating to anyone thinking they have it made because they have health insurance.
Retired Cigna executive, Wendell Potter, told Bill Moyers on The Journal (PBS) about getting a wake-up call when he saw long lines of people near his Kentucky hometown waiting for health care at a Health Expo. He thought about how he ate with gold-plated silverware when on company jets.
They mentioned overhead costs are 20% for insurance companies and 3% for health care provided by the government. They didn't say how much of that 20% goes to supporting our elected pubic servants.
To see that episode of The Journal, look up Wendell Potter on pbs.org.
Another part of the show looked at how the insurance companies discredited Michael Moore for producing SICKO. When Moyers asked what the insurance companies were afraid of, Potter said that the American people might believe Moore . Potter also said Moore hit the nail on the head. Moore was right!
The insurance companies' focus was not to attack Moore as much as it was to publicize the horror stories in public health-care systems. Unfortunately for them, the worst stories—and most common ones—relate to insurance companies denying health care.
Their strategy will be to tell us about the complexities, wanting to get it right, not rushing or having medical decisions made by administrators. (Government administrators, not theirs.)
We'll also hear different groups such as doctors, pitted against hospitals or nurses. They plan to distract and confuse.
Not rushing also means not rushing to provide care.
What we can count on is insurance companies promoting universal health care, i.e., forcing everyone to become their customers.
I remember the first time I saw SICKO I came away knowing that if I ever got really sick, I was screwed. The second time I saw it, I expanded to seeing that in essence, we're all screwed and wondering if this is what we are about. There's another issue at least as important. One American living in France said it (in SICKO). The difference between the French and the Americans is that Americans are afraid of their government; in France , the government is afraid of the people. They demand. They demonstrate. They get what they want.
In the US we get out of our universities deep in debt and are generally afraid of losing our jobs, because it means losing health care. It's a vicious cycle for the land of the free. In post World War 2, Winston Churchill, incredibly popular for pulling Great Britain through the war, was defeated for reelection.
He was against government health care. The Brits were overwhelmingly for it and that was the issue of the day.
Rebuilding after WW2, while devastated economically, they somehow found the resources to create a government health system. After the war they must have had a sense of community and knowing they were in it together. Maybe our troubled economy will have a similar silver lining and help us see that we are connected.
Many businesses are struggling, and California just cut back on health-care services. Many levels of government are struggling.
So what if you are working and paying for your house if several people on your block can't and move. Values go down.
We're connected.
The bottom line is simply this: where there's a will, there's a way. They find money for what they want. They fund the wars they want. They find money for bailouts. They can figure it out, if people demand a public option. I've seen polls that say 75%–85% of us do. What's left is being vocal and not fearing the hype we will hear.
We don't need to copy any system that doesn't work and we don't need to be afraid of the costs. They consistently get money to flow in the direction they want it to flow.
Playing the devil's advocate, I look at the worst-case scenario.
Higher taxes!! Although I wonder how it can be higher than monthly insurance premiums that only buy us the right to fight for benefits.
The Danes now pay about 50% of their income in taxes! They are provided a free college education. Imagine that one's ability to understand a subject could be the determinant of how far one could go in a particular field? Wouldn't that benefit society? Denmark also has a public health-care system. The common working wage is $18 an hour.
In a recent poll, it was found that as a whole, the happiest people in the world lived in Denmark . Go figure.
We have different priorities. We are the land of the free—just not debt free.
Will we have a public health-care option? Yes—if enough people remember who needs to push it. Tell the President what you think. www.healthreform.gov/index.html
Have a great month,
Steve
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