To Your Health

The primary reason that our healthcare system is broken is that it is a for profit system. The incentives to make money from suffering are intense, but immoral. We are captives of that system because we need it and must value it highly, however those who control the system have control over our lives. That is a grave mistake. Medicine need not be a for profit endeavor. It was originally conceived as a spiritual healing art for the benefit of everyone, for the well-being of society. The Hippocratic Oath that all doctors swear upon states, “First, do no harm.” Medical personnel have pursued often many years of expensive education and training, so they deserve to be remunerated at a rate commensurate with that time spent and skills learned. But those who invest in medicine as a business model just to make profit push the prices higher and cause other unintended consequences that further increase medical costs. Medical insurance is a gambling ripoff. Drug companies have incentives only to produce drugs that are profitable, not what are needed to solve broad social ills, and their profits are often unreasonably high; drug prices are horribly inflated. For profit healthcare is overvalued.

Most medical personnel go into their profession to be of service and expect to be remunerated at a worthwhile rate for their valuable service. Only a small number of medical personnel are in the business just to make money. A public healthcare system would weed out these people and encourage them to pursue less crucial, but more lucrative professions. I do not suggest that all medical personnel should be employed by government; they could still be independent, privately employed individuals.

Some institutions in societies should never be private nor allowed to make profit because they promote a healthy society; they are required for everyone, equally, regardless of social status, income, political beliefs and associations and all other distinctions that make us individuals. The many activities and agencies of government fit this distinction; nonprofit services needed by most of the people and paid for by taxes.

A society needs a basic healthcare system for society to be healthy. In the case of epidemics and pandemics, relying only on a private healthcare system could mean massive spread of disease and social dysfunction, economic collapse, famine, etc. Health shouldn't be a special interest issue.

That a public healthcare option is “off the table” in Congress is only because the private, for profit business institutions fear losing billions of dollars and their political power. They have inordinate power to unfairly lobby Congress against the wishes of the people. They don't care about the health of society or for poor, sick individuals. Immediate monetary gain is the bottom line, not health, although this thinking could eventually lead to their demise along with millions of other innocents dependent on these failed policies.

Only a single-payer system, one large group policy that covers all citizens from birth to the grave, could be cost-effective and humane. When profit incentives are removed many costs are naturally reduced all across the board. And when “We, the People” are encouraged to cooperate with and care for each other all our individual lives will be improved. Our well-being is dependent on everyone else, and that is a very powerful position.

Rationing is the scary buzzword that opponents of fair healthcare throw around to derail public healthcare. Any healthcare system rations available care: Triage based on the severity of injury on the battlefield or in disasters and epidemics. Ours rations it severely according to income and/or employment, which buys insurance. Certainly, very expensive interventions for an elderly or very sick patient that might not extend life or even potentially kill a fragile patient should be evaluated for rationing. We shouldn't waste medical resources. These evaluations take place all the time even in the current, broken system.

The current healthcare system is based on fixing broken bodies, not prevention and maintaining health. Costs are inflated by this out-of-control approach. In our economy, the more sick there are, the more money is made by a few people, but at a high cost to the nation. A preventive healthcare maintenance model that can identify potential problems before they happen is far more cost effective. Nor should a public healthcare system pay for vanity surgeries or unnecessary procedures just because an individual wants them. There should still be private medical services available to those who can pay for them.

Revaluing healthcare costs is what we need now. Obviously, our lives and health are priceless. What is it worth to us in monetary terms? Do we overvalue doctors and other medical personnel? In many developed countries doctors and other medical professionals are paid reasonably high salaries or wages, but not as high as in America. Doctors love these high salaries and the social status they create, but they should remember that medicine is a service and a responsibility to the community.