With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth concerning health care reform, I don’t know why we just don’t start with something simple. It is simple, people. Fix what’s broken. We do not have to over-complicate this. Proponents of reform have been testifying mightily about the insurance industry’s agent provocateurs at town hall meetings, their paid ads denouncing choice, and their furious lobbying to crush health care reform.
I have a solution, though, something they would hate, and something they would not be able to combat. The public would love it, because in it, everyone could see themselves. Everyone could see that there but for the grace of God, go I.
All it would take to start would be one law – one little stinking law. And there is precedent for this type of law, the kind of law that says, if you want access to this market you can’t discriminate.
Have a store on Mainstreet? You can’t refuse business to someone because of the color of their skin. It’s my store, you say. I can do what I damn well please. If I don’t want to serve a certain type of person, it is my right. It’s my store.
A-ha, I say, it’s not exactly your store. You paid money for it, yes, a pecuniary outlay to build your establishment, but there are other costs too, costs paid by this town. The town maintains the road that goes in front of your store, the cables that bring electricity, communications, the water treatment plant and distribution system that brings it to your faucet. We the people have to look at your establishment in our society, in our town, on our Mainstreet, and we have to ask ourselves: Are we better off for allowing this space to be used by you? If you don’t let black people in your store, then we will revoke your right to do business here.
We won’t shoulder the cost of your discrimination. It is too high.
Ownership is a lie. Operating a business is an implied social contract with certain responsibilities, duties, and burdens.
So, here’s what I propose: Pass a law making it illegal to deny coverage or raise rates based on a pre-existing condition.
The commons, this commons that we call the US, is the platform upon which business operates. We the people own the platform, and given some basic rules, we allow people to operate businesses upon that infrastructure.
It has been said that people do not have a “right” to health care. I counter that corporations and businesses do not have a right to yield infinite profits at the expense of the margins. If you do business in this fair land of ours, there are certain liabilities, responsibilities that you must shoulder. There are going to be very sick people among us. Those very sick people deserve the protection of a just society. They deserve to be subsidized by those that never get a runny nose. They deserve to be subsidized by the stock holders of the insurance companies, and the great mass of caring and decent people within our borders.
“It sucks to be you.” Is not an acceptable response to the unfortunate circumstances of a cronic, debilitating, or otherwise serious and incurable medical condition.
If it’s illegal to deny coverage or raise rates based on pre-existing conditions, I think it goes a long way to delivering justice to those burdened unfairly by a simple and cruel twist of fate. Let’s look after our sick, shall we? Let’s ease their suffering and we can start with a very simple and easy to understand piece of legislation.