Bring On Da Pain

Good news on the “health insurance reform” front: Anthem (Blue Cross) raised their rates on their non-group insurance customers some 30% or more. The howls of outrage are arriving on cue. California insurance authorities are promising to look into the matter. Members of Congress are huffing about how they’re going to look into the matter, too, questioning the raises and noting that the health insurance parent companies have posted massive, record-breaking profits while whining that they’re raising rates because they’re in danger of going broke if they don’t, & etc.

The higher rates will cause more people to drop their insurance as unaffordable, and if they get sick they’ll have to go to already overburdened emergency rooms. Or overtax already buckling public health agencies.

This is all good. Clearly, a sufficient number of Americans don’t see unaffordable health insurance as a problem. Or it’s not important to them that millions more will now be on the “uninsured” rolls. Perhaps, if more and more of them continue to lose their jobs and fall into that non-group insurance group that are getting their rates bumped, it will occur to them to maybe start asking questions.

Questions like, “I wonder why my wholly-owned subsidiary of the Insurance Industry, Congressman Blort, never allowed the public option on the table?” Or, “Come to think of it, My wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Pharma, Congresswoman Smitheres did not allow single-payer, Medicare-for-all to even be allowed on the table. I wonder why not?”

Or they might ask, “Why is it mandatory that our health insurance industry remain a for-profit system? Other countries have health insurance but it’s non-profit. Other countries pay far less for basic health care than we do, and have better overall health outcomes. Why do their systems work well for them? Are they smarter than we are that they can figure out how to offer universal health care for all their citizens at an “affordable” rate? We hear about how happy Canada is with their system? How the heck did Canadians manage that? I mean, Canada??”

Or maybe ask, “Why is our government subsidizing “bad food” that makes us sick (i.e. corn in the form of high fructose corn syrup that’s added to EVERYTHING, corn as the basis for “cheap,” corn-fed fatty meat that has to be prophylacticly doctored with antibiotics & etc ) when they could stop subsidizing bad food and subsidize good food (fresh fruits and veggies, no additives needed) and get two birds with one subsidized stone: Healthier people, lower health care costs?”

Or maybe these Americans, while they’re sitting in the emergency hospital waiting room, need to ask themselves, “Is my congressman or senator one of those that’s using the supermajority tactic to block all legislation for his own political gain? Is my representative the one that’s blocking legislation until so he can get huge pork projects located in his bailiwick, again for his own political gain? Maybe I need to think about electing somebody else, somebody who will stop being a wholly subsidized Corporate Shill and start being a representative looking out for people like me and looking out for the good of the nation as a whole.”

And so forth. So many questions, all requiring serious answers.

But, I won’t hold my breath too long waiting for an answer. I’m betting our insurance-less citizen will, instead, vote the same corporate shills back into office, vote even bigger corporate shills back into office, believe even bigger corporate lies (now that the Supreme Court has opened that door) and continue to fall for carefully framed and deliberately manipulated political talking points, deceptive mantras that would make George Orwell proud, and so get even more fleeced and punished for his inability (and unwillingness) to connect any dots.

Coyote America with a giant cartoon rock eternally being dropped on his head by the wily roadrunner, again and again and again. Comedy time with a tragic ending.