Health care: Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad

George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” describes quite well the current level of debate in American politics. In the book any serious discussion among animals was stopped by the sheep who would scream “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad”.

It is a little bit more sophisticated in the United States. For example, nobody disputes that “democracy” is good. “Spreading democracy” sounds good too. The result - we are ready to go and bomb the crap out of a country, so it would become “democratic”.

Nothing is more American that private enterprise. Of course, there is nothing wrong with Capitalism and competition as this proved to be the most efficient way for a society to create goods and services. However, when the corporations grow big, they tend to influence the government policy. The United States is the only country where private companies make profit providing – or, rather, denying – health care to people. After all, private health care insurance industry makes a profit on the balance of the premiums it collects and fees it pays to the actual health care providers. In order to pay its executives and lobbyists their millions, it needs to cut corners – provide an illusion of coverage and minimize payments for health care performed, or deny coverage altogether.

A lot of people are now concerned that private health care is being threatened by the government offering health insurance. We hear self-righteous demagoguery about preserving the private health care industry and the threat of “socialized” medicine. That’s a log of b/s. The only reason to preserve this parasite is to insure that it continues to pay politicians for the decisions that only benefit the industry.

Everywhere I turn, people want to have the Single Payer system, like they have in Canada, Australia, etc., and such health care system makes a lot of sense. Yet, the sheep keep screaming “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad”…