Non-Health Care

I have arrived at the conclusion that the only way to get people to discuss the utter dysfunctionality of American health care is to avoid calling it a system. It isn’t. It is a shambles. In case you missed it, health care is now the hottest topic in corporate board rooms. American companies are being crippled by rising health care costs and are having to cut programs and benefits as a result. The cuts are presented as ‘choice’, as in ‘we are giving our employees more choice’. The point is that staying healthy is not a choice, but an imperative. The decision to hire a doctor or visit the hospital is often made under pressure and with limited opportunity to exercise considered choice. The notion that health care is a product that people can comparison shop for is fatuous nonsense. The people who peddle choice in health care are the free market types who cannot abide the idea that government has a role to play in anything: I have the image of economist professors deciding whether to get a broken leg fixed or to spend that same money on something else. After all they argue that health care is a choice like all other economic decisions. Rubbish. Still, those of us who advocate a role for government now have an important ally in big buiness. Savvy business types are now realizing that government should get involved because corporations cannot be both businesses and health care providers. It’s not what they are supposed to do, and they can no longer afford it. As business squeezes it employees [can we all say Wal Mart?], political pressure will build. Then after we have fixed it we can dignify the mess we have by calling it a system. Just don’t call it that now.