Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Wednesday -- last week of "Talking To.."

My sore throat is not worse today. I hope that means I'm getting better. Rosanna is coming to the play tonight and since she "got me into this.." I want to make her glad she did. A healthy vocal mechanism will help.

Big News in Mass. today is the "universal" -- well not quite, it aims for 95% eventually-- "health care"-- not quite again, it is mandated individual coverage. Fines for those who fail to buy in-- is it really a secret plan to force all the semi-employed to leave the state because they --we-- won't be able to affford either coverage OR the fine? Anyway, I commented on the American Prospect's blog, "Tapped":

I am afraid that this bill is a big step backwards. It adds extra layers of red tape to a failing system that already eats up a disproportionate % of our GNP. That's without factoring in the lost time and psychic damage that ordinary people-- like me!-- suffer from any time they are rejected, misinformed, erroneously billed or arbitrarily cut off from treatment-- or forced to shift from a doctor/patient relationship that works to an iffy new one that is "covered". "Coverage" or "Insurance" does not insure care-- it is a business, and it can only stay in business by taking in more money and paying out less than its competitors. Medicare D is what happens when government and business lobbyists "cooperate" -- a dysfunctional nightmare.
If state resources were pored into real community-based clinics with strict standards of Public Health based care, with no frills and no expensive end-of-life heroic measures, Massachusetts could prove that a Canadian-type system could work in the US. This one is bound to fail, and further "prove" the alienating proposition that governmental good intentions are the problem, not the solution.

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