Great letter to the Minneapols paper today about health care

[dflprincess]

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/52992372.html?page=2&c=y

Health insurance is socialist. Get over it.

In addition to Medicare and Veterans Affairs being "socialist" systems, the whole concept of insurance itself is socialist: The more fortunate subsidize the less fortunate in a collective effort to maximize the well-being (health and wealth) of the group. The aim of any individual may be self-protection, but the only effective and just means to achieve this goal is to maximize the well-being of the whole. The cost of any individual's misfortune is shared by the entire group; that's what insurance is. Once we can swallow the fact that we are all in this particular boat together, perhaps we can agree that it would be nice for us to have a say in how the system is run and where our money goes.

The current private system can't even accurately be called insurance: It's not insurance when companies routinely deny coverage on technicalities and even pay teams of people to find reasons to deny claims; it's not insurance if the administrators work as hard as they can to make sure only the healthy are covered. (Ultimately that just means the taxpayer ends up paying for some of the worst cases anyway.)

The current private system is really just an expensive lottery with bad odds. A public system would help us more efficiently achieve the goal of the healthy subsidizing the sick as opposed to the whole group subsidizing corporate executives and shareholders.

Anyone who opposes single payer should read this and think about it - including the Democrats who seem so determined to protect the private companies.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I loved that one!

[dflprincess]

7. I don't know the person who wrote it

but I might be in love :loveya:

[Kerrytravelers]

2. Exactly.

[rurallib]

3. Lordy I was just telling y wife yesterday that it was more like a casino game

I bet $500 each month That if I need them they will cover me. I have no say, but I better have my marker up to date.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Thanks for posting this. NT

NT

[wellst0nev0ter]

5. Brava!

Too bad your average wingnut will not be able to get the irony, but still that was a good read.

[tnlurker]

6. K&R

Great letter and point. I will be using this one tomorrow at work.

[Eyerish]

8. K&R