Why Do We Have These Problems?

Earlier today I responded to a comment Liberal Journal Man made here at Wandering the Ether, and I am having a difficult time moving beyond it. I think it would be accurate to say that the sentiment behind my reply is now devouring the periphery of my thoughts. Part of me yearns to have this question answered, while the rest of me knows it probably never will, because that would require that we (all of us) acknowledge that these problems exist.

It really is the right thing to do. We spend so much of our time and energy (socially) focusing on religion, claiming that without it humanity would have no moral compunction to honor one another, but what I see is a society that hides behind the illusion of ethics while laying claim to the world's largest population of homeless, preventing it's citizens from being healthy. All the while making it extremely costly to seek a higher education.

Is that the goal here? To have as many people as possible homeless, sick, and uneducated?

Education. Health care. Homelessness. In my mind these three issues represent our greatest social challenges as Americans. Or rather, these are the three great taboos that we seem collectively intent on avoiding. There is plenty of discussion, but where is the funding? Where is the reform? Of what value is all the talk, sans the walk? Would anyone mind explaining to me how we can scrounge up the money to pay corporate hit men to kill people, but we feign bankruptcy when it comes time to heal people?

Did you know that according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, as of 1999 roughly 1 in 4 homeless people in America were veterans?

Did you know that the price of college tuition again rose faster than the inflation rate this year, climbing 6.6 percent at four-year public schools and outstripping increases in financial aid?

Did you know that in 2003 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the number of Americans without health insurance jumped sharply for the second year in a row, up 2.4 million to 43.6 million, 15.2% of the population?

The reason I mention religion in the original quote, is because so many of us seem intent on using that as a crutch. Most of the Americans who affiliate themselves with a religion believe that in doing so, they are automatically living their lives in accordance with a higher moral principle. Yet these problems still exist within our society, despite the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey revealing that 80% of the U.S. population claims to be Christian.

My Christianity may be a bit rusty these days, but even I am aware that modern American culture doesn't come close to mirroring the world Christ spoke of, and this brings me to the very precipice of the question which currently burdens my thinking. If 80% of America's children claim to be Christian (caring, compassionate, giving, loving, nurturing), WHY DO WE HAVE THESE PROBLEMS?

Image borrowed from Democratic Underground

Greed Will Be the Death of U.$.

We watched Michael Moore's Sicko yesterday, and his documentary was everything I expected it would be. Not long ago my brother called me saying that he had seen this film, and that he was then seething with frustration. He said that the film caused him to feel ashamed of being an American, and his hope was that if everyone would watch this movie, that viewing it would ignite the revolutionary spark that has long laid dormant in Americans. As you can probably imagine, when I popped in the DVD, I did so excited by the promises of controversial truths. I will admit that Moore has a tendency to sensationalize, and that his flair for the dramatic can often detract from the seriousness of the issue(s) he is attacking, but overall, the film was very well done, and a must-see.

Sicko compares and contrasts the American health care system with the health care systems of Britain, Canada, Cuba, and France; all of which provide universal health care to their citizens, meaning that anyone and everyone in those countries can and do receive free health care regardless of whether they have come down with the common cold, are giving birth, or need to have major reconstructive surgery. It's all free. Sure, these folks pay a higher percentage of their income towards public services, but when the time comes that they actually need help, they receive help.

Here in America the bottom line is as it has always been: about money. The big health insurance corporations thrive on turning people away because the more money that they are forced to pay out on claims, the smaller their profits become, and health care in America is not a social program, it's a business. Former insurance claims investigators have even gone so far as to detail the process, explaining that whenever someone is approved for a large procedure, (i.e. organ transplant), the company brings in what they call special investigators whose job it is to scour your background, your medical history, and in some cases your lifestyle in an attempt to uncover any preexisting conditions, or evidence that they can use to deny you access to the treatment.

Yet, the insurance companies are merely the tip of the iceberg. Big pharmaceuticals, the drug companies (within the United States) have complete control over the cost of their products, and they use this power to rob people blind. Retired couples who have worked hard their entire adult lives are having to sell their homes, and in some cases file bankruptcy due to the increasing costs associated with having to maintain the multiple prescriptions that American doctors are suggesting they take. Some of which are often redundant, and only prescribed to deal with symptoms associated with the habitual ingesting of all the other prescription drugs, which in turn creates even more negative side effects in what many would consider a vicious cycle.

To put this into tangible terms: a prescription strength inhaler cartridge that runs around $200 in the U.S. can be purchased for $6.65 euro in Great Britain, and in Cuba for $3.20 pesos, or roughly, FIVE CENTS.

Of course it is necessary to factor into this equation the nature of the incentives offered to the doctors themselves. In the United States, doctors are encouraged to refuse treatment to a certain percentage of their patients. Now please understand here that I am not indicating this to be true of all American doctors, and there may even be some who are unaware that this takes place behind the scenes, but any doctor who is in private practice, and deals directly with the insurance companies, knows for a fact that they stand to profit more, if they treat less.

In contrast, doctors in G.B. have their incentives structured completely differently by the government (which controls nation's health care system), with the emphasis being placed on the overall health of their patients. For example, the more patients a doctor can get to stop smoking, lose weight, lower their cholesterol, and so on... the more he will be subsidized, and see her/his profits increase. When asked if he was able to get by as a doctor within a system of socialized medicine, one doctor noted that he owned a million dollar home in Greenwich Village. He went on to say that he was quite happy with his current means, and that only those doctors who seek $3 million dollar homes, and 5 fancy automobiles, will find it necessary to practice medicine in the United States.

50 million people within the United States have no health care of any kind. 18,000 of them die annually of treatable causes. Of the 250 million Americans who are insured, many of them struggle to pay the escalating costs of their drugs and treatments. Others, never receive the treatment they need, even though they are insured, because the insurance companies find exploitable loop-holes in their medical histories. We are the most prosperous, wealthy nation on this Earth, yet we do not have universal health care.

In a country well governed poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed wealth is something to be ashamed of. -Confucius

A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members. -Mahatma Ghandi