There are None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See

There is one simple way that would help to make sense of the health-care debate. When opponents of change claim, for example, that most Americans are satisfied with their care, the next question should be, "how about its cost?" Many people receive good care, but for those without adequate insurance, who lack work-related health benefits, aren't poor enough for Medicaid or old enough for Medicare, it isn't about the quality of care that's available, it's about the cost of obtaining it.

When reports indicate that some 70% of bankruptcies are the result of medical expenses, when insurance companies take every opportunity to pare their rolls, the picture isn't so sunny. The film, Class Action, starring Gene Hackman, although fictional, doesn't seem all that different from the way corporations and insurance companies assess risk vis-à-vis profit margins. In the movie, gas tanks in the company's cars explode in accidents, killing or seriously injuring occupants. Caused by a malfunctioning turn-signal, the problem could be corrected by recalling the troubled vehicles. But management is told by its "bean-counters" that it will be cheaper to pay the claims resulting from accidents than to issue a preventative recall.

If the lack of concern for the welfare of human beings seems extreme as the movie's plot line unfolds, consider the plight of a woman on the eve of a double-mastectomy, told by her insurer she had been dropped for falsifying her original application by neglecting to cite previous medical treatment - - for acne. She testified in Congress that the hospital had requested a huge down-payment to cover care for which she was no longer even minimally covered. The fact is that life-and-death decisions are randomly made all the time even when people have paid their premiums and acted in good faith.

Many opponents of health-reform, already covered by government plans, seem not to grasp that fact nor do they understand that pharmaceutical-company subsidies underwrite their prescription benefits. The antics of those virulent crowds at town-hall events would be comical if they weren't so tragic And it is passing strange that Republican apologists can, without excessive winking, actually claim that Democrats Pelosi and Hoyer called protesters "un-American" when what they actually said was that "drowning out opposing views" was un-American - - the masters of deception just keep churning their wares.

Every year premiums rise regardless of personal use or inflationary pressure. If the general population is frightened by what may lie ahead, they are right to be alarmed even if the reasoning behind their concerns is confused. Companies may perhaps opt out of medical plans for their workers if a public option is available; incentives to dissuade them from doing so are as yet unclear. But consider the gimmicks businesses use today to skimp on payroll taxes and avoid providing health-care for employees, listing long-term hires as "independent contractors" for instance  - - and, in the end, shipping much of their work to countries like India where medical benefits aren't an issue at all.

One Medicare recipient who has never been denied benefits, choice of doctors or treatment recounts that, in the past, reimbursement for a dental procedure was disallowed by an insurance company because it decided the augmentations would be short-lived, although many years later they were still functioning perfectly. Similarly, coverage for a hernia operation was limited by a company-devised formula irrespective of the hospital or area of the country in which the surgery was performed. It's hard to argue government would restrict the scope of treatments when private insurers do exactly that now.

The President's town-hall event in New Hampshire was more orderly, but a protestor outside was allowed to keep a gun strapped to his leg.  Although legal in the state to carry a firearm in public, when did local custom override the tight security measures that usually obtain during presidential visits?  Apparently, in addition to verbal assaults, assault weapons have become acceptable elements in the health-care debate.

It is said 'there are none so blind as those who will not see' which describes many of the protesters who seem to be in a state of amorphous rage, manipulated by partisans and ideologues who use disorder to promote agendas at a far remove from the interests of those they claim to serve and for whom health-care reform is but a convenient pretext for destabilizing the Obama presidency.