Addiction is the most important healthcare issue of our time.
The Private Healthcare Industry’s addiction to money is a $4 Trillion dollar habit, and the first step is to admit we have a problem with that. The next step is to have an intervention, and the American people need to know, going in, that many of these healthcare cash addicts will lie, bargain, lash out, and lie some more, but we must be strong, and think of our “family” – of Health Professionals – who signed on with a noble purpose to “work for the common good of society”, and extend our Right to Life for as long as possible. Unfortunately, they are currently in a co-dependent relationship with the private profit-seeking industry for which they work, dealing their drugs, peddling flesh, prostituting themselves…it is time for them, and us, to be co-dependent no more.
The Industry of Healthcare understands that it’s nothing personal. It’s just business. Private Healthcare is trying to run a business, and no one can argue with the logic that a business has to behave like a business, in order to be successful. The Third Option’s only contention is that, per our Right to Life contract (which precedes all other economic arrangements), people’s health is not actually for sale – it is non-negotiable – therefore no business should evolve around it. Using the pointy end of their Right to Life schtick, many politicians and journalists are now taking stabs at the giant healthcare beast, but they won’t be able to bring it down without us.
If we were to join together, and bring this healthcare beast down, another beast would simply rise up to take its place, unless we start thinking, right now, about what the true purpose of healthcare is: what part is a Right to Life, what part is about our Pursuit of Happiness, and some of it even has to to do with our Liberty as well. Soon, some serious lines will need to be drawn. The Third Option has already thought a lot about it, and devised a plan for healthcare to finally get clean. Make no mistake: there will be a price to pay, but thankfully, it will only be one fourth the price we currently pay.
Essential Workers
Our essential workers are the rock stars of healthcare, and from now on, we are going to be all about the music. Healthcare workers (like rock stars) make maybe 2 cents on the dollar; it’s the music and healthcare industries that collect the rest, but most of it is money for nothing, and that is why they have to go. Our health system needs management, but not executives, sales reps, brokers, and other middlemen. Once they are gone, the cost of care will go down significantly.
Premiums and CoPays
In the course of human events, there are certain indignities we are all likely to suffer (like old age), and others that (for now) are seen as purely random occurrences (like contracting COVID-19). This category of healthcare falls under our Right to Life. For circumstances beyond our control, the cost should be added up, split between every one, and represent a monthly “Premium”. The Third Option thought it best to design a five-tiered system based on the various stages of life, to fairly reflect how the average cost of healthcare does increase with age.
Some of us get sick, and we simply ride it out. Some of us go to the doctor every time we sneeze. Copays fall under our Liberty to decide things for ourselves, and thus represent individual costs, allowing “you to do you”. In this way, copays still have a place in the new healthcare pricing system.
“For Profit” Health Insurance
Currently, there are only two people in the room negotiating for your life: the healthcare industry and the insurance industry; you don’t get to be there. So far, the negotiation is kept secret; so you don’t get to know what transpires, either. When they come out of the room, they have worked it all out and we owe $4 Trillion. Originally, insurance was designed to help patients afford Health Care and keep hospitals from going under. Now they are circling around Us, along with the other scavengers of Health Care, waiting to be fed. Insurance can be a useful idea, and we can make it useful again, as a method to cover our Right to Pursue Happiness.
The New Taxes
Just as people wanted the freedom to get Covid if they felt like it (regardless of how much it taxed our essential workers), people will demand the freedom to choose their own slow, expensive version of Death, or add a life-threatening element to their exercise, or own something that will likely kill or injure them at some point. Chalk it up to our irreverent, fun-loving, self-destructive nature, but to subsidize this behavior takes money out of other people’s wallets – money they will no-doubt need to kill themselves in some other creative manner. We cannot police people’s freedom to choose their own version of Happiness, but we can collect fees and taxes and licenses – not as a deterrent, but merely to cover for the health damage it will cause later. Think of it as you investing in your unhealthy future. It isn’t much different than the current social security, but instead of setting aside money for retirement, it will be set aside for your impending self-inflicted suffering.
Thus, it turns out, there are other addicts besides our Healthcare Industry in this equation: We the American People need to sober up as well.
I like sugar, caffeine, and beer. You like cocaine, opioids, prostitutes, and riding ATV’s between rum and cokes. In order to provide “affordable” healthcare, all of us will need to start becoming active participants in our own health. The new healthcare must be a two-way agreement between you and your doctor, and sorry, but being healthy takes effort. Health Care Professionals will need to be part Mentor, part Coach, part Expert, and maybe even part Cheerleader, if necessary. Be prepared to get informed, possibly lectured on occasion, maybe even chewed out if necessary. Everyone’s new goal should be to get ranked #1 in Healthiness. That’s a competition we can all live with, and where a participation medal doesn’t suck as much as it usually does. To this end, expect a large boost in mental health experts, because we cannot hope to curb physical self-abuse until we dive deep into the pool of emotional suffering which always precedes it.
In reality, the beast that is our current Healthcare System is really just one head of a much larger monster, which grows a new head whenever and wherever it sniffs out a chance to feed itself. Naturally, the bigger it gets, the hungrier it gets..
This monster is happy to help cause (and then have us subsidize) our own poor health. It does not give a crap about our Right to Life, but instead feeds off our misplaced vision of Liberty and Happiness that, ironically, It created for us. Only together can we bring down this monster of Economic Growth; taking back healthcare is a winnable first step.
SOUTH SUDAN