A Hard Pill To Swallow

"Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die" - Author Unknown

As posted to the right, I am an insurance agent and broker. If you think you can't stand insurance companies, I loathe them. It's not as if I work for a salary. We work strictly commission. Agents and brokers bust their butts to sell products that customers need but hate to pay for. Their animosity is almost always directed at the agent, as if he or she not only computed the premium schedule but made up the policy itself right in their driveway. Insurance companies are in the business mainly of screwing everybody but the insurance company. They screw their agents just for fun, doctors when they can, and policyholders when they are pretty sure they can get away with it. I have had the marvelous opportunity to see and experience all of the above. They are bastards no doubt, and every dealing with them leaves me with the dizzy question "Hey, next time you do that, don't you think it would be nice to kiss me first?"

Healthcare is all the rage in every election. Democrats want us all to have "free" healthcare, which of course will be paid for by the putrid, vile, hated and filthy "rich". Republicans frankly don't have much of a clue as to what to do about it, but at least they realize that socialized medicine is a disaster in almost every country it has been tried. Attorneys like "Mr. Two Americas" John Edwards are primarily responsible for skyrocketing healthcare costs resulting from frivolous malpractice lawsuits with enormous punitive damages awarded by juries with extra chromosomes.

Enter Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California. Here is one article from the decidedly conservative Wall Street Journal. I can see their point, but the doctor-patient confidentiality agreement is nothing to be messed with. Patients, out of fear of losing their coverage, may not tell their physicians about certain conditions that could make a bad situation even worse, and thus, more expensive in the long run. And what is with yanking the doctors' short and curlies financially to get them to rat on their patients? Also, I always thought that WSJ readers were a bright and educated lot. Read their responses. I never expected to see THEM of all people clammoring for "universal healthcare."

Now here is an article from the Marxist camp over at CBS. This character talks about bloated administrative costs in private insurance companies - just what in the hell does he think government has done with every single program it operates? And what happens if we don't like the results from government controlled healthcare? At least the insurance companies don't have guns and jails to compel us to buy their products! Micheal Moore must be giggling right now (no, am not linking to him or any of his DVDs or books, just the thought of that bloated huxter makes ME want to see a physician). His intentionally, highly inaccurate film Sicko made Cuba look as the tropical paradise of healthcare. What he conveniently forgot to mention was that the facilities he visited were all reserved exclusively for the elite in the ruling party of Cuba, which would be Fidel and his commrades the "communists" (I put that in quotes because if they were true communists, they would all be equally miserable as a matter of definition and philosophy). Also, Cuba quarrantines anybody diagnosed with HIV, which is the first disease in the world to have its own political agenda. Liberals should look into this. Meanwhile, check out this trailer for Sick and Sicker, which might be just a tad more close to the truth about the bliss of socialized medicine.

My father was a man of quick wit and the master of the one-off. While stopped at an intersection on our way to church, the most crammed-full-of-family station wagon went directly across the our field of vision. There were kids of all ages, with noses and cheeks pressed up against the windows, and the father was driving with his seat as far up as it would go, chin on the steering wheel and forehead to the windshield. As we all stared in amazement as this Vatican Poster Family drove by, my father broke the silence by saying "Careful there fella. You almost screwed yourself out of a seat!" Dittos for BC/BS of California. Whatever savings this might bring in the short run could sound the death knell for private insurers in this country, and Blue Cross is no exemption. Our healthcare system is not great, but it still is among the best in the world. We have generations of people who think they are entitled to anything and everything, not the least of which is "free" medical care. They are not only ignorant as to the consequences of this, but they really don't give a damn since the bad stuff, in their feeble minds, will most likely happen to somebody else.

The Canadians thought that too. Now only their evil, putrid and hated "rich" can cross their southern border to get decent healthcare that is obviously unavailable in their own country.

Blog note: A rather interesting snippet from Logan Darrow supporting the previous post "The Drug War" is here.