Obamacare: Missing The Point

I've often asked people who hate Obamacare what is the difference between being forced to buy car insurance and being forced to buy health insurance.  The answer is always the same.  People need to have car insurance because they can have an accident and need to be able to pay for it.  But we don't get sick and need to be able to pay the doctor?  They often say that it's taking away their freedom by forcing them to buy a type of product.  Again, mandatory car insurance is forcing you to buy a product.  They say that forcing insurers to cover a person regardless of their medical condition or ability to pay for insurance will drive the cost up.  I say, if it does, insurance companies are assholes and these are all stupid arguments. 

I don't fault Obamacare for wanting to change a broken system so that everyone can use it regardless of income.  I have a problem with mandatory health insurance because it doesn't solve the problem that is healthcare in the US.

Let's consider what an insurance company really is.  They're a middle man that you pay so that if you have an accident they can use the money you paid them to "help" you pay any expenses.  Question.  Why do you need the middle man?  Why is the cost of healthcare so exorbitant that you can't afford to pay your bills without using the middle man?

The real problem with healthcare in the US and across the world is greed, that old crux of humanity that makes us act selfishly at the expense of others.  People don't become doctors because they genuinely want to heal the sick.  They become doctors because they want the large paycheck that comes with it.  Pharmaceutical companies make pills for pennies and charge hundreds of dollars for them in order to rake in billions in profits.  The healthcare industry is too busy profiting off the pain of others that they've forgotten they're supposed to be helping them.  Imagine a world where instead of doctors we had healers.  Imagine a world where healing was considered an honor, a noble profession that one took up because they wanted to help and not because they wanted a mansion.

In a world like that, where profit took a back seat, costs would be a lot lower.  There would still be a cost, but it would be a fair cost and not one over inflated to milk as much money from you as possible.  Remember the $12 aspirin?  What do you think the motivation behind that is?

Another aspect driving up costs are the status symbols associated with being a wealthy doctor.  Why do you need marble countertops and travertine floors in a doctor's office?  Why do you need giant flat screen tvs in every room?  Because if you're greedy enough to desire to be rich, you want to flaunt it and that means you need more money to pay for it all.  I would rather have linoleum floors and functioning equipment over travertine.   I want the money I'm paying to go to my care and not toward making the doctor look good. Plus eliminating unnecessary bells and whistles will bring costs down.

Another factor is that so many people are in such bad shape that they have to use the system no matter how bad it is.  If folks took better care of themselves, ate right and exercised, they wouldn't have all the health issues that keep them slaves to the industry.  Other than regular check ups and emergencies, they wouldn't use the system as much.  This puts the power in the hands of the patients because doctors can't be millionaires without patients to pay their salaries.  If they had to come to us, the competition could very well keep costs down. 

Perhaps the biggest problem facing us is the amount of apathy toward the problem.  People are afraid to shake up the status quo.  They fall victim to the industry's threats and shy away from anything that would hurt the industry's power in response.  As much as they complain, all the talk of death panels and what not keeps them from action.

And that is the problem with healthcare.  Greedy little bastards financially raping the sick and a populace that is too stupid to take care of themselves or fight back.

But if we could change it, if we could turn doctors into healers and remove the greed, then everyone could have healthcare when they needed it.  Once the costs were low, people wouldn't need insurance companies because they could afford to pay their bills on their own.

I'm told by those who hate Obamacare that we have the best healthcare system in the world and shouldn't mess with it.  What is the point of having the best healthcare in the world if no one can afford to use it?  Bringing costs down requires a radical change in thinking but it's a needed change and the only way to solve the healthcare problem.  Will Obamacare be that change?  No.  Because it misses the point.  We should be focussing on changing the people running the scam that is the healthcare industry and not on getting more people to use middle men to pay for it.

My low opinion of Syria

Syria is yet another backwards Middle Eastern country ruled by an evil dictatorship.  That appears to be the norm in that part of the world, but what do you expect when you allow religion to run your government?  But Assad, the evil power hungry tyrant that he is, may or may not have used chemical weapons on his own people and America, the world's savior, cannot tolerate that.

Here's the thing for me though.  Assad and his goons have been killing his detractors since they first began fighting for their freedom.  The rest of the world just gave the rebels some more guns and sat back and watched.  Suddenly chemical weapons come in the picture and we're like "Hey! That's not right!" and say we need to bomb them.  Why now?  Why not 2 years ago?  Does it matter how a massacre is carried out or that a massacre happens?

Let's be honest.  The US has never gone to war over something that didn't serve US interests and preventing chemical weapons from getting into the hands of their enemies is a very big interest.  It only took the possibility of Hussein having weapons to convince the world to attack Iraq.  We have incontrovertible proof that Syria has chemical weapons, but the rest of the world is fine not doing anything about that. So that is why America is beating the war drums now. Any lives they may save from Assad's tyrade is just a lucky happenstance.  The real goal is to protect the US from jihadists using chemical weapons on Americans.

But as much as I would like to see dangerous chemical weapons kept away from the crazy jihadists, I know that any US led military action in Syria is doomed to fail.  It will not stop the bad guys from getting the weapons.  It's a fact that a lot of the rebel fighters are affiliated with crazy jihadists.  It won't stop the war in Syria. There is no plan to remove Assad from power.  It WILL piss off the jihadists and increase anti west sentiment across the Middle East.   It WILL piss off Russia (and her tyrant in charge) into taking action against the US.  It WILL drag the US into another war it can't afford either financially or physically to fight.  It WILL cause tension and grief and wind up being as pointless as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So as noble as it may seem to want to stop the bloodshed and destroy the weapons, I can't support going to war in Syria.  It won't prevent innocents from dying and it won't serve the US well.

This shouldn't be America's fight.  The entire world should be dragging Assad out of office but they won't and why not? Because dictator Putin says no. Because it's in Russia's interest to keep Assad around.  Because Russia makes money off of Syria and making money is more important than stopping genocide.  The US can't fight this war alone and that is why they shouldn't. Russia needs to do the right thing, put the all mighty dollar aside and stop Assad from killing civilians. 

Sorry to the Syrians who are suffering.  Blame Russia.