Lubbock Left

The health insurance industry is fighting against reform especially hard because they’ve got a really good racket going.

Here’s how it is. Private insurance companies have entire departments — or even entire outsourced companies — that specialize in searching through submitted claims for any excuse to deny them. A typo, an unchecked box, a maiden name instead of a married name — all of these become reasons to deny otherwise valid claims for health care. Preexisting conditions are used to deny care. These things happen under a health insurance system that is driven by profit. The less coverage that is given, the more profit that is taken.

If you are looking for rationing of health care, look no further than our current private, for-profit health insurance system.

Let’s back up to the “30,000 feet” view. The problem is that market-driven systems are powerful and innovative, sure, but they have no inherent moral component. It’s up to society to add that moral component. Often this can be done without the government (e.g. most people are raised not to steal regardless of the legal punishment for theft), but sometimes the government — representing the will of the people — has to step in when an industry behaves badly. We are living in such a time, and health insurance is such an industry.

So, why are progressive Democrats drawing a line in the sand with adding a public health insurance option? It’s not merely to add competition where there is little-to-none (and these days, you are lucky to find an employer that offers a choice between multiple health insurance companies, or even an employer that offers health insurance at all). It’s also to introduce a concept of justice where there was none before. I look forward to the day when preexisting conditions, provider networks, third-party billing, and other such contrivances are ancient health insurance history.

Meanwhile the entire GOP apparatus, head firmly in the sand for its corporate masters, is busy farting out all the lies it can to keep things the way they are in the world of health insurance. The more-than-70% of Americans who want health care reform will have to continue pushing our elected officials to do the right thing and include a public option in this year’s health care reform bill.

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