By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… UnitedHealth Group, the largest U.S. health insurer in America, is considering pulling out of the Affordable Health Care program. The problem is it is neither affordable nor is it health care. It is a government mandated insurance program. Not a single dollar under this program is directly used to pay for medical care.
Prior to the ACA, those who could not pay for their health care were taken care of in charitable hospitals usually run by a church, by donations of sympathetic community members, and by overcharging those who could afford private insurance. When you received your hospital bill and that aspirin cost $75, the room you stayed was $800 dollars a day, and your flight for life costs $45,000, you were not paying just for your aspirin, your room, or your flight; you were paying for the five uninsured people who could not pay. This system seemed to work because the overcharges were paid for by the insurance company who had been collecting your exhorbitant monthly premium.
When the ACA was passed, there was little opposition from the health insurance companies who thought that the government had just created a new cash cow for them. The insurance companies were aware of the fact that the real desire of the Democrats who controlled both houses of the federal government and the presidency was a one-payer system that would have been a death note for the insurance company.
What the UnitedHealth Care President hoped for was a date with the prom queen. What he got was the Wicked Witch of the West. Those who could not afford insurance were more in need of medical care than the average American. When one is not sure where the next meal is coming from, he is not likely to spend money on preventive health care.
The President of UnitedHealth seemed surprised that the new members, most under federal subsidized plans, were costing more for their care than their fees covered. The insurance companies also found that they were dealing with people who have been working the system for years. The new members paid a small personal premium that was then subsidized by the federal government. They went to the doctor and ran up enormous bills. They then quit paying the premium.
Many Americans received the first health care they had had for years. This was good; however, I would suggest that if the same government dollars had been used to buy health care, instead of insurance, the dollars would have been better spent. One must remember health insurance companies are the gambling halls of the business world. The insurance companies collect your money each month betting that they will not have to return it in the form of health care. In most cases, this is true. However, when large segments of those insured are collecting more than they paid in, the corporate president has to give up his private jet. What I find amazing is that the leadership of the insurance companies apparently did not see this coming.
Let’s move this to a conspiracy theory. The defeated Clinton Health plan was a single payer system. The Democrats hoped that when they instituted the ACA it would be so onerous that it would make single payer look good. Hillary could then institute single payer when she is President.
No one asked me but… As the two major political parties in America move to a nomination of a Presidential candidate, one must wonder if the clowns are now running the circus. If things were to remain as they are now, the average American, who has no say in who will be nominated, will have the choice of an extreme left wing liberal or a wild-eyed right wing radical. Where is that moderate leader who will put the people ahead of their political party?
When I listen to Hillary Clinton, I have visions of the Russian revolution of 1905. The Russian people hit the streets to overthrow a tyrannical government run by an imperial family. They replaced it with an even more tyrannical government run by elite representatives of the masses under the Communist Party.
When I listen to Donald Trump, visions of the National Socialist Workers’ Party come to mind. This party came to power exploiting the social, economic, and international unrest in Germany prior to 1930.
While we would like to see the federal government making a strong effort to eliminate the terrorist activities of radical Muslims; Trump’s announcement that he would require all Muslims to register with the federal government is appalling. Maybe we could require them to all where a yellow crescent. Maybe we could confine them to their own ghettos. Maybe we could place them in concentration camps.
You say that could not happen in America? Talk to the Native Americans who were placed on reservations. Talk to the Japanese American Citizens who were placed in concentration camps during World War II.
Left wing liberals believe global warming is more dangerous than Muslim extremists and the right wing extremist believe all Muslims are out to kill them. One must wonder; is there no middle ground to be sought? There is no doubt there are Muslims who are dangerous not only to America but to the entire world and need to be eradicated.
We have the power if not the will to do so. However, America must not give in to the knee jerk reaction of the right wing radicals who find Mr. Trump so attractive. Nor should they jump on the bandwagon of the left that all Muslim immigrants are, as the President would have you believe, three-year old children and their grandmothers. Over seventy percent of the Syrian refugees are young men between the ages 18 and 45.
Where–o-where is the leadership from the middle? There are plans to deal with immigration without deporting eleven million people. It is true they arrived here illegally, but like it or not, they are here to stay. It is also true that most illegal immigrants are individuals who came seeking a better life for themselves and their families. It is true that extreme radical Muslims are a problem, but there are solutions short of a national registry of all Muslims in America.
If we win the war and lose American core values, have we really won anything?
Thought of the week…A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in. And how many want out.
-Tony Blair
