I Take That Personally

I now have a personal stake in the outcome of the healthcare debate. Met Life just wrote me that I’ve been turned down for something called Critical Illness Insurance.

It’s amazing that even in the context of employer-sponsored health insurance, one has to battle with the vampire corporations for the privilege of sending them your money. Here I am trying to be a responsible citizen, plan ahead and purchase additional protection in the hypothetical case that I get medical bills too high for my regular coverage. Instead, the corporate lords say I might actually cost them money for reasons that they refuse to divulge.

The episode illustrates the fundamental irrationality of the system. I am essentially offering to pay an additional tax on my income to enter an insurance pool to stave off health-induced bankruptcy, even though this is unlikely to occur. But my contribution—which under a government-run plan surely would be welcomed with open arms—is turned down.

This is exactly why we have medical care for the rich, the illusion of coverage for the working middle class (until they actually need it), an imperfect safety net for the destitute and Fuck You, Asshole, for everyone else. Only the elderly, protected by socialized medicine since the 1960s, escape the nightmare.

However, my still healthy heart is gladdened by the news that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is feeling its oats and drawing a line in the sand over the so-called public option. According to accounts on the liberal blogs, some 80 members of the House are vowing to vote against any health bill that lacks it even if that means defeating the best-laid plans of the terminally wimpy Obama White House. Even if that means allowing the Republicans to crow about the End of the Obama Presidency.

Personally, I suspect that a defeat like that, early on, might be just what our new prez needs to grow a pair. In any case, I’ll take a clean loss based on something that we actually want over a stupid new system that enriches the insurance companies that just turned me down and solves nothing in the long run.

If the Clintons had gone for a clean defeat on a good health system instead of compromising themselves into a corner and losing anyway, we might have started out this debate on much healthier ground. Pardon the expression.