What is really wrong with for-profit health care?
I need to barf out some words that are burning in my belly. It's about health care, and I want to make some points through the lens of our current crisis. And let me start by qualifying myself. I am a libtard snowflake. I have been calling myself a socialist for over 20 years. So you can just put me in your nutjob drawer and stop reading now if that's all you need to know.
People, I've gotten really used to feeling like a far from mainstream whacko here in Merca in the years since Newt Gingrich and the contract with America idiots planted the seed of greed that has since polluted the political right to a greater and greater extent with the passing years. Pointing out that we would be better off with a fully socialized health care system like France or Canada has made me feel like a sideshow freak. Pointing out that Obamacare was actually an idea created in a right wing think tank which handed a huge slice of pork to the insurance industry also has made me seem like a loony.
Right now we are seeing what the fundamental problem is with for-profit medicine. And it's not that a lot of well paid people sit in glass and chrome buildings far from any hospital making decisions about your health care. That's bad, but that's not the real weakness. Here it is: in our system hospitals are businesses. Plain and simple. Well, what's wrong with that?
Businesses can fail. Businesses have to care about profitability. The mission of any business is primarily to stay in business.
Does the army ever have to lay off staff? Why not? Well, they are not a business. They are an institution of government. Why isn't the army a business, isn't that always the best way to provide a service? Well, armies can't afford to think about profitability because their mission is too important. Their incentives have to be pure. They can't fail because money is tight. When they buy assets like tanks or airplanes they shouldn't have to justify the profitability of those purchases. And guess what? They aren't profitable! They are nothing but cost!
I would argue that health care is every bit as important as defense. Our nationwide hospital system has fewer beds per citizen than countries that have socialized medicine. Why? Extra beds are not profitable. Our nationwide system has fewer ventilators per system, and now in crisis we have far too few. Why? Having more ventilators than you typically need makes no business sense. Why buy a ventilator if you don't expect to make money because you have it? And now, nurses are being laid off. Remember folks, this is a business. Cancelling all those elective surgeries and what-all, that's hitting us right in the bottom line. Gotta let some folks go. Nothing personal, it's just business.
OK, I've written all these words. Perhaps 2% of you are still reading. This is my point: We are going to be living with a new reality. From my perspective, the way things were in 2019 will probably never be the same. Institutions all over the world are being dismantled or blown sky high. We are going to be trying to fix our health care system on the fly in order to survive. Changes will happen, more so in smarter states. All you bookish people who are still reading, you are going to be the ones who need to explain this stuff to the knuckleheads. We have an opportunity to teach some people. Some are beyond help, but the teachable ones need to understand. The right has created a huge and very legitimate looking propaganda engine. We need to start getting people who are teachable to look away from that bullshit, because it will always tell them that capitalism is good and socialism is black, bottomless evil. That's what the wealthy need to have the proletariat believe in order to keep the status quo.
People, I've gotten really used to feeling like a far from mainstream whacko here in Merca in the years since Newt Gingrich and the contract with America idiots planted the seed of greed that has since polluted the political right to a greater and greater extent with the passing years. Pointing out that we would be better off with a fully socialized health care system like France or Canada has made me feel like a sideshow freak. Pointing out that Obamacare was actually an idea created in a right wing think tank which handed a huge slice of pork to the insurance industry also has made me seem like a loony.
Right now we are seeing what the fundamental problem is with for-profit medicine. And it's not that a lot of well paid people sit in glass and chrome buildings far from any hospital making decisions about your health care. That's bad, but that's not the real weakness. Here it is: in our system hospitals are businesses. Plain and simple. Well, what's wrong with that?
Businesses can fail. Businesses have to care about profitability. The mission of any business is primarily to stay in business.
Does the army ever have to lay off staff? Why not? Well, they are not a business. They are an institution of government. Why isn't the army a business, isn't that always the best way to provide a service? Well, armies can't afford to think about profitability because their mission is too important. Their incentives have to be pure. They can't fail because money is tight. When they buy assets like tanks or airplanes they shouldn't have to justify the profitability of those purchases. And guess what? They aren't profitable! They are nothing but cost!
I would argue that health care is every bit as important as defense. Our nationwide hospital system has fewer beds per citizen than countries that have socialized medicine. Why? Extra beds are not profitable. Our nationwide system has fewer ventilators per system, and now in crisis we have far too few. Why? Having more ventilators than you typically need makes no business sense. Why buy a ventilator if you don't expect to make money because you have it? And now, nurses are being laid off. Remember folks, this is a business. Cancelling all those elective surgeries and what-all, that's hitting us right in the bottom line. Gotta let some folks go. Nothing personal, it's just business.
OK, I've written all these words. Perhaps 2% of you are still reading. This is my point: We are going to be living with a new reality. From my perspective, the way things were in 2019 will probably never be the same. Institutions all over the world are being dismantled or blown sky high. We are going to be trying to fix our health care system on the fly in order to survive. Changes will happen, more so in smarter states. All you bookish people who are still reading, you are going to be the ones who need to explain this stuff to the knuckleheads. We have an opportunity to teach some people. Some are beyond help, but the teachable ones need to understand. The right has created a huge and very legitimate looking propaganda engine. We need to start getting people who are teachable to look away from that bullshit, because it will always tell them that capitalism is good and socialism is black, bottomless evil. That's what the wealthy need to have the proletariat believe in order to keep the status quo.
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