Tag: healthcare

There’s Something Very Unifying About A Global Crisis

Cruise Ship

There’s something very unifying about a global crisis — a great inescapable event that affects us all at the same time.  Such crises seem rare but in modern times, they happen often.  We have world economic crises, a global climate crisis, and a crisis of faith in our leaders that’s led to widespread social uprisings around the world.  These sorts of crises affect everyone to some extent, but the effects are hard to gauge.  Some people are affected disproportionately, others not at all.

But in the case of coronavirus, it’s different.  Coronavirus is affecting everyone — rich and poor, young and old, all races and creeds — at the same time.  And while some of us say to ourselves, “It’s just the flu” or “I’m young, it won’t kill me,” our lives are still being majorly impacted by it.  For starters, there are social restrictions and they’re getting tighter by the hour.  Moreover, the world economy is shutting down, which means that along with toilet paper, money is going to be in short supply..

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An Easy Solution to the Healthcare Problem

Every time an employer issues a paycheck, they record two sets of deductions: one for Social Security and the other for Medicare. There’s actually a third deduction for federal tax but that one doesn’t matter for our purposes. What I’m getting at is that every employer already takes out money from employees’ check for social programs. We’re used to this system and guess what? it sort of works. So if health care is so important that every single person must have it no matter what, then why not treat basic health care the same way we do Social Security and Medicare, and just deduct it, proportionate to how much each person makes, from their pay. Read More

When Is Health Care Reform Not Health Care Reform?

9/18/2009

When is health care reform not healthcare reform?  When it comes on the backs of middle class Americans who already can’t afford it while providing a huge benefit to the very industry that caused the healthcare problem to begin with.

I have been reading along on the healthcare debate, mostly not liking it, and today I read in the Washington Post that there is now concern on Capital Hill that healthcare reform will be too expensive for middle class Americans to afford, especially for the many millions of uninsured.  I have to ask — are they’re just figuring this out? Read More

The Great Healthcare Debate

8/24/2009

Although I’ve witnessed a lot of great debates in my short time on the planet, the current discussion of healthcare going on across the country is probably one of the most compelling.  This time, it isn’t some weighty matter like war, elections, and impeachment that has us talking.  Instead, it’s a policy issue that just happens to affect us all.  Not surprisingly, most Americans are following along and many have opinions to offer.  So here’s mine, in a nutshell:  if we don’t insist on better healthcare, we’re never going to get it.  Conversely, if we say we’re ok with crappy healthcare, then that is what we will get.  It’s that simple. Read More

Money Wants To Be Free

12/14/2008

Suppose we were to uncomplicate money.

I was reading a story in the Washington Post today about how the city of New York is cutting a daycare program for middle-class Alzheimer’s sufferers.   The program is badly needed by the families it serves, but the $1.2 million price tag and relatively low number of beneficiaries made it tempting to city government, and they cut the program.  All 12 centers will close by the end of the month.  Meanwhile, the hundreds of families they served are out of luck.

Once again, the question arises — why must we do without needed services provided by willing service providers just because of this arbitrary, made-up thing called money?  It’s true that when viewed through the usual lens of “because that’s the way capitalism works”, you can almost rationalize hurting real people to save a buck.  But when you jump up a level and look at the big picture, it just seems stupid that people go cold or hungry or without healthcare or education, because they weren’t blessed by birth or circumstance with a large enough share of the coin of the realm. Read More