by Josh Potter
In the September issue of The Atlantic, David Goldhill wrote an article entitled “What Washington Doesn’t Get About Health Care”, which was a fascinating and sweeping (roughly 12 pages) analysis of his perception of where this country’s health care woes originated. While the whole thing was informative and interesting, one section in particular was of particular intrigue to me. The section was entitled, “The Moral Hazard Economy” and explained that health insurance has encouraged a culture of passing costs, and thus, responsibility off on other people (or, in this case, huge corporate conglomerations). Essentially, Goldhill explained that insurance works in such a way that people can go into a doctor’s office for any reason and expect to pay none of, or very little of the actual bill since their insurance will cover the rest. Goldhill says:
For almost all our health-care needs, the current system allows us as consumers to ask providers, “What’s my share?” instead of, “How much does this cost?” – a question we ask before buying any other good or service.
What this has done is give pharmaceutical companies and doctors a large window of opportunity to develop a sickeningly (pun intended) large amount of medicines and care tactics (meant to sound like scare tactics) that we, most of the time, don’t actually need. Goldhill says, “The key message: you can benefit from this product and pass the bill on to someone else.” So what do pharmaceutical companies do? They make medicines for illnesses most people didn’t even know they had and sell it at inflated prices because, well, huge insurance conglomerates can afford it. Goldhill asks the interesting question: if pharmaceutical companies have such a captive audience (we will all get sick, and we will all end up needing medicine), why do they end up spending so much money on advertising? The answer harkens back to the fact that the consumers (us) don’t have to spend money on any of the medicines being advertised, so we go out and “purchase” them from our doctors without thinking. This is where Goldhill fails to continue. He spends so much time analyzing the failures of government oversight or insurance companies, but it can all be boiled down to the fact that no one is thinking.
We’ve all seen the commercial for the medicine helping to alleviate “RLS” or, Restless Leg Syndrome… There is no way in hell that is a real thing. If Restless Leg Syndrome is a curable ailment, then why can’t I go to the pharmacy and pick up my prescription for “Can’t Get Laid By a Real Live Woman-itus,” or “Can’t Sleep Because I Can’t Afford a Real Bed-emia”? The sad part is though, that people hopped off their couches (once they could get that weird leg-shaking thing under control) and “bought” (or rather, billed their insurance for) RLS medication. The same was true for every parent who shouldn’t have been a parent in the first place “buying” Adoral for their (retarded) kids, because they didn’t know why little timmy with the lunch composed of sour-patch-kids, lunchables and mommy’s used hypodermic needle couldn’t focus in school.
On a side note, my brother was diagnosed with ADD and Bi-Polar disorder when he was hardly a teenager and was prescribed Adoral. He is currently a recovering heroin addict.
What all this means, then, is that people need to start thinking. Think about it like this: 9 out of 10 people (which is still shockingly low) will see an infomercial for something like the “Shamwow” or “Snuggies” and say, “there is no way in HELL I am going to pay 29.99 for that piece of shit, no matter how many times I can clean my car without having to ring out a rag. But, when people see medication to help get their dicks hard, they jump at the opportunity because they can just bill their insurance instead of thinking, “maybe my dick is soft because my wife of thirty years looks eerily similar to the family dog, or because I AM SIXTY YEARS OLD!”
That is, indeed, the message folks. Though I could say this for most issues in this world today, the answer is THINK! Education is our biggest defense against any current event issue we are facing. Goldhill says it himself when he says, “Medical care, of course, is merely one component of our overall health. Nutrition, exercise, education, emotional security, our natural environment, and public safety may now be more important than care in producing further advances in longevity and quality of life…”
So, you want this whole health care “thing” to get solved? Let’s review what the illness (or at least one symptom of the illness) is: Our insurance companies have given doctors and pharmaceutical companies and unbelievable amount of market share to sell overpriced medication the general public doesn’t even need, but is made to believe we want.
So, what do we do? I have a prescription for you: a library card.
