Health Care

Rape charges dropped as
94 year-old man dies
before his hearing.

If it looks rather like one, and if it walks sort of like one, and if it quacks really loud like one, and if it also has the brain of one, it must be one – a Rush/Hannity/O’Reilly/Coulter/Malkin Republican. Hip-hip-hooray for idiocy!

Will we achieve universal health care under the Obama administration? Probably. I say this because it appears that Obama will make his case that doing something about health care is crucial to doing something about the economy. It will probably happen also because most everyone wants it or needs it now, especially the automobile companies and some other large corporations. It has become obvious that one of the main reasons American companies are losing out in competition is because they, unlike other countries, have to pay for their workers health care, a very expensive burden, especially when you have been in business for years and have a large number of retirees. The pharmaceutical companies will probably go along because if everyone has coverage they will have a much larger population to provide drugs for, and invent new ailments for. There will no doubt still be problems with the AMA, the hospitals, and above all, the insurance companies. Everyone has been invited to the table and everyone will be able to influence the design of the universal plan. The obviously most efficient and least expensive way to go about universal health care would be a single-payer plan. But with everyone invited to the table that is not what we are likely to get. The problem will be the fact that all interested parties will have to be bribed in one way or another, particularly the insurance companies. The single-payer plan would eliminate the insurance companies but this almost certainly will not materialize. The question we need to answer, I believe, is having universal health care worth the price we will have to pay, if it is not a single-payer plan? Personally, I believe that universal health care is worth the cost, even if it is not the cheapest, most sensible and efficient way to achieve it. And perhaps the plan drafted this time will eventually lead to the far more sensible single-payer plan. I hope so. In any case, I believe Obama is correct when he argues that other spiraling costs, such as medicare and even Social Security, cannot be controlled without first controlling the out of control medical system. This is an argument so compelling that I think even the more mindless among us (Republicans) will have to concede, unless, that is, they are prepared to “stand on their principles” once again even at the cost of blocking that which is so desperately needed.

Someone said recently that if a company is too big to fail it is too big to be in private hands. I agree completely. First of all, why in the world did we allow companies and corporations to become so damn big in the first place? I understand, more or less, economies of scale. I mean, if you print 10,000 books instead of just one at a time it is less expensive. But who ever said this applies to all kinds of industries? And even if it did, is it always in the best interest of the public to agree to it. Personally, for example, I am totally opposed to corporate agriculture, and I don’t care if it produces food cheaper than otherwise. If the truth were known, in terms of environmental damage and the use of energy, pesticides, and other chemicals, it is probably far less desirable, and perhaps even more expensive than farming on a smaller scale. I suspect the same is true of big timber, and many other such enterprises. I am also sure that doing things on a smaller scale would provide many more opportunities for employment, to say nothing of promoting human happiness and well-being (but, then, since the Industrial Revolution, who ever said human happiness and well-being had anything to do with it).

Senator Arlen Specter is opposed to a Truth Commission, saying we shouldn’t pursue past practices unless there was some evidence of crime and wrongdoing. Where do you think Arlen has been for the past eight years? This is like Nancy Pelosi arguing there was no reason for impeachment unless someone could demonstrate wrongdoing. Where was Nancy? Some of our Congresspersons seem to have developed denial into a fine art. Bush/Cheney have admitted to torturing people. Torturing people is a war crime. In addition to their admissions of guilt there is a wealth of evidence they committed war crimes. I understand there are reasons why Obama might not want to have to deal with this, but he is going to have to because the American people are going to demand it. Crimes are not excusable because they happened in the past. If that were true there would be no crime.

And speaking of crime, the terrible drug wars going on right now in Mexico could be eliminated relatively easily if the United States would come to its senses and decriminalize drugs and give up the absurd “war on drugs” that is causing all the trouble. If we could curb the demand for illegal drugs, just as we did away with prohibition, think of how much better off everyone would be. Drugs do not have to be made legal, merely returned to the business of doctors and medicine where the problem belongs.

Why do I feel more and more with each passing day that I have a ringside seat for the end of our species? I desperately want to believe that a black man on a wonderful white stallion is going to rescue us, but it takes at least 200 million to tango.

LKBIQ:
The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefore.
W. Somerset Maugham

TILT:
Frank Yerby was the first African-American author to write a best seller and have it sold to Hollywood.