healthless

I’m all for universal healthcare, but not in the United States. As a resident of those States, and an advocate for the migration to some sort of similar system, you would assume the opposite. Understandable, but the American ideal would immediately render it completely useless.

To start of, I’ve seen Sicko. I’ve read the latest in op-ed pieces and vaguely know some of the statistics behind it. I know there’s a gigantic propaganda campaign against it waged by the medical industry. It’s much like the tobacco industry and the oil industry; the government inherently means less freedom; the service will suffer. Some of that may even be true, but that’s not why it won’t hold water.

We need universal healthcare. This isn’t a want issue. Those that want better service will always have private physicians and specialists to go to. This is about the dying middle class and the growing legions of poor or destitute. It’s about those that have to choose between a house or a surgery. There should be no question in anyone’s mind that this is a necessity and something that needed to be addressed decades ago.

It’s obvious that support is there. The corporations will happily stop cutting their profits in order to insure their employees. No one should have to choose between their health and financial ruin. It’s barbaric and, as far as top economies go, obsolete. The fact that we are behind in every category of health, except for costs, is undeniable. Some of the numbers are closer than others, but as a whole we are taking up the rear on the list of first world nations as far as overall health. Even if you factor out the over indulgence in edible materials, we’re the rusted iron pipe to the rest of our peers’ golden faucet.

But it won’t work. Years of creating a new Gilded Age have prevented even the slightest chance of an effective and efficient healthcare system from being produced. The emphasis on profits, the focus on consumerism, the priority of war, and the fear of socialism have rendered any attempt at such a thing as a universal system impossible.

Look at how the government runs things currently. We contract out as much military power and secondary support as we do voluntary troops. Contracts for planes, weaponry, and facilities are given out in no-bid, hand-shake agreements. We propose budgets that include ridiculous construction projects and reduce funds to something as invaluable as education. Medicare is one of the most inefficient and financially absurd programs to date. And, even when enrolled in the program, pharmaceutical companies have been able to charge astronomical prices for necessary drugs.

That ties into how corporations currently operate. They are built on a platform of greed. They are made up of a pyramidal hierarchy that focuses the wealth on disproportionately small percentage at the top of that pyramid. They are making the decisions and profiting from them while those below them do the work and eek out a living.

With these two entities, the government and the market, working together, there is no possible way for universal healthcare to be an efficient project. The corporations will fight to keep their profit margins high while the government offers contracts to the most connected bidder, not the lowest. The products will be ridiculously sub-par and borderline unhealthy, but when claims are made to that effect, the corporations will claim they have no choice because of the constraints of a cheaper product. But, that’s assuming we get to even that point.

Any attempt to put this through channels will be squashed like a centipede under a flip-flop. The medical industry already spends billions in keeping their connections. Their fear-mongering has everyone ignorant enough to believe it thinking that they will be taxed out of their homes. The pro-business members—I’m sorry, all—of government will perpetuate this impression that we will lose financial freedom into the succubus of socialism. The threat of raising taxes will dry up large chunks of the support even with a large campaign in the direction of healthcare for everyone.

It boils down to the new American way. We are fed messages of being the greatest country on earth even with substantial evidence to the contrary. But we believe it, because we want to know we are better. Things have changed immensely since we worked together to defeat a world terror—please don’t confuse that with the current manufactured and abstract “war on terror.” The first Gilded Age ended in a catastrophic depression. This one will do the same, but without such a fall, we will never see universal healthcare in any form.

The media and government are supported and lead by corporate influence. Corporations will never give up their right to generate profit. The rich will never give up their wealth without a well-funded fight. Consumers will never give up their right to choose. People who have advanced enough not to rely on charity will never significantly give to those who still need similar charity. The poor will never have a voice. And until, after some financial, military, or governmental catastrophe, that changes, we will be treading water down stream from the countries that used to look up to us as they swim quickly past.

The people in those countries realize they are a part of a greater whole. They know that everyone, even the richest, have to rely on someone at sometime in their lives. They know that without strong basic necessities everyone is hurting. They have found ways to exist with each other, not just to be around them. Until the “me first” attitude of even the poorest of Americans fades, we have no hope of something like universal healthcare coming to fruition in a reasonable way.

But maybe you know a way to change the nature of what it is to be American while convincing everyone else. I’m only going on what I’ve seen to date. Any ideas?