oh baby... I want healthcare legislation.

Angela is having her baby as we speak... yay! And so completes the cycle of everybody I know having a baby. Oddly enough Camrann's wedding is tomorrow... and it marks the beginning of the cycle of everybody I know getting married...

I am very pro public health care plan (probably because I pay 200 dollars a month for insurance, despite being a healthy 26 year old). I think that certain things shouldn't be left to the free market mentality. It makes absolutely no sense to me that pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies make assloads of money. The CEO of Aetna, for example, made over 24 million dollars last year. That's nauseating. The problem with the health industry is that they make money based on people being sick. The less healthy the population, the more pharmaceutical companies and the capitalistic healthcare juggernaut profit. When health care is based on profit rather than the well-being of the population, of course there will be abysmal health care, insurance companies that exclude people who need health care the most, and an obese, pharmaceutical dependent population. Encourage prevention before costly conditions occur. don't just treat them after. Diabetes, cancer, heart disease... all are extremely expensive. Yet, there are many things our healthcare system could do to lessen the percentage of the population that will develop these disorders. Exercise, A healthy diet, drinking less alcohol, smoking less, Regular check-ups... all of these things would drastically reduce the prevalence of these illnesses... All of these things cost next to nothing compared with the treatments of these disorders. Our thinking must shift to a prevention based paradigm. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or however the saying goes. Anyhow, tangents aside, back to what I was initially going to say about a public option for healthcare.

There are two arguments that I hear time and time again against why we should include a public plan in the health care legislation. 1.) The government can't run anything efficiently, medical facilities will have ridiculous waiting periods and mediocre treatment at best.
2.) If you create a public health plan, it will drive the private sector insurance companies out of business because they won't be able to compete with the public plan.

I hate, hate, hate these two statements being brought up in the same argument. It doesn't make any fucking sense! Health care will be so shitty, with lines out the door, and horrible, incompetent doctors... but the private insurance companies could never compete with a government plan! It makes no sense. If the care they provide is so much better, they will have no problem going against a government plan. I am fine with people making one argument or the other... but you can't have both. It's just silly.

The first argument. Look at all the other civilized countries in the world. They all have government plans. A government plan doesn't have to be the only option... but give people the choice. (Senators, congressmen are covered by a "government ran program" for god's sake). Furthermore, medicare ( a government run program) is very effective, affordable, and has a high satisfaction rate. It also goes without saying that the same people who argue that a government can't run anything efficiently should be concentrating on getting rid of the government control of other federally run programs like say, the military for example...

To the second argument, I say, why are we so concerned about private heatlh insurance companies staying in business... shouldn't we be more concerned about the welfare of the people than a ceo of Aetna's 24 million dollar a year salary? Not to mention the lessening of burden that would be ameliorated by shifting from an employer based health care system, and the increased productivity having a healthy, productive workforce would yield... I just don't get it. ugh.

that was a bunch of horribly written run on sentences and grammatical foibles all smashed into a short little space. eek. I hope you can make sense of my wonderful word salad. my apologies.

here's hoping a peaceful slumber shall restore my eloquence and grammatical prowess ;)

bear hugs and high fives to you all

-Lane