Hey Everyone!! 😊
Since it's the beginning of the workweek, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at how those in power keep the rest of us in our place and working for their benefit. Enjoy... 😉
"Yeah. People who work in support positions in the healthcare industry often make little money and have few, if any, benefits."
"What types of jobs do these people perform?"
"All different kinds. There are people who work as nursing assistants, secretarial staff, laboratory assistants, phlebotomists, janitorial staff, home health aides, and others. It depends on the company they work for, but it's not at all uncommon for these positions to have low salaries and few benefits."
"Benefits such as what?" asked Squid-boy.
"Benefits like paid vacation and sick time, health insurance, and retirement savings contributions."
"One moment, are you saying that the health insurance you were talking about earlier is something your people must obtain through their employers?" asked Yax. "But what if, as you say, the employer opts not to provide such insurance; how do their employees get their healthcare needs taken care of?"
I shrugged. "In a lot of cases, they don't."
"What?" exclaimed the two aliens.
"Like I said before, lots of people die in my country every year because they have no health insurance and so aren't able to get the medical care they need."
"Because of wallet biopsies?" asked Squid-boy.
I nodded. "Yes. Sometimes. If a patient has a long-term or chronic illness, they can receive emergency care for an acute exacerbation or complication by going to an emergency room. By law, they have to be treated enough for them to be 'stabilized'."
"Which you said before just means that they won't die imminently."
"Yep. But the underlying cause of their illness won't get treated."
"Can you give us an example?" asked Yax.
"Sure. One example would be someone who didn't have insurance who had cancer. Even if their cancer was treatable with chemotherapy or radiation therapy, they probably wouldn't be able to receive those treatments if they didn't have insurance. If they went to an emergency room, they would probably be given a prescription for pain medication and treated for any acute symptoms, like if they were having trouble breathing, or something like that. But then they'd be 'referred' to a cancer specialist, who they wouldn't be able to see because most specialists won't schedule appointments for people who don't have insurance. And even if they do manage to get in to see an oncologist, they almost certainly won't be able to get the treatment they need because they wouldn't be able to afford it. Cancer treatments can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more, and most people don't have that kind of money."
"So they would just be allowed to go without treatment?" exclaimed Squid-boy. "Their cancer would be allowed to progress until it killed them? Even though the means exist to save their life?"
"Yep."
The small alien waved his arms around his head and walked around in a couple of circles. Eventually, he turned back towards me and snapped his beak in my direction. "I reiterate; your species is barbaric."
"Well, as I said before, I won't argue with you, sugar. There are other examples, too. For instance, if a person has a chronic illness like diabetes and they don't have insurance, there's a good chance they won't be able to afford the medication they need to keep their condition under control. There was a case not that long ago where a young man in his early twenties died because he didn't have insurance and couldn't afford the insulin he needed to treat his diabetes."
"But such illnesses cause other health problems if they are allowed to go untreated. It's much easier, and requires fewer resources, to treat such conditions on a maintenance basis rather than to allow them to go uncontrolled and create more problems for the patient," observed Yax.
I shrugged. "You're preaching to the choir, darlin'. I agree with you, but I don't make the rules."
"But it's illogical," insisted the tall alien. "If the concern of your insurance companies is to keep costs low, it makes much more sense for them to pay for the necessary treatment to prevent chronic illnesses from causing expensive complications."
I laughed. "Sure. If those companies insured the patients we're talking about. But they don't. So, it doesn't cost them anything if those patients get even more sick than they already were, because they won't be paying for them, anyway."
"But surely the cost to your society…"
"You aren't getting it, sugar. Most of the time there is no obvious cost to my society because no one is paying for these patients to be treated. Some of them, the lucky ones, are able to qualify for government health coverage. But the requirements for those programs are pretty stringent, and a lot of people either don't qualify or can't figure out how to navigate the bureaucracy to prove that they do qualify. So, the only financial costs to society, at large, are the costs associated with the emergency care, which is usually minimal, they receive until they die. And we haven't even talked about how many people never even get diagnosed until it's too late do anything for them because they couldn't afford to go to a doctor when they started feeling sick and their symptoms weren't severe enough to qualify for emergency care."
Yax crossed his arms over his chest. "I must agree with my colleague; that's barbaric."
"I agree, but that's still the way it is."
The large alien heaved a sigh and ran a hand over one of his horns. "Be that as it may, none of it explains why people in your society receive health insurance from their employers. If, as it seems, your people have decided that this type of insurance is a necessary commodity, why can you not purchase it on the open market like any other consumer good or service?"
"Well, people can buy health insurance on their own, but there's no free market for it."
"Why not? I thought the philosophy your society valued was that of free-market capitalism. Why should there be an exception for the health insurance industry?"
I looked at the handsome devil for a few heartbeats and then dissolved into hysterical laughter. Squid-boy wandered over and gave me a quizzical look, which just cracked me up even harder. The two aliens looked at each other and Yax said, "I believe this is a sign that we have misunderstood something fundamental about their society, once again."
The short alien made a gurgling sound and responded, "Hardly surprising. Their society seems determined to be manically irrational."
Wiping tears from my eyes, I sobered and said, "Bless your hearts, y'all don't seem like you've understood anything I've told you."
"In what way have we misapprehended your meaning?" asked Yax.
"Isn't it obvious? Has anything I've said indicated that there's anything resembling a level playing field in my country? There's no free market for insurance because the corporations that run our government don't want there to be. The same way there's no free market in a lot of industries, and for the same reason. And there hasn't been anything resembling a free market in my country for decades. The corporations that run our government find it much more profitable to form monopolies, so people don't have any choice beyond purchasing from them or not purchasing at all."
The tall alien made a disgruntled sound in the back of his throat. "More examples of the corruption you told us about."
"Yep."
"But there is an option for your people to buy health insurance without going through an employer?"
"Yes. But it's expensive. A few years ago, a law was passed that makes it easier for people to buy their own health insurance, and some people can qualify for government assistance to pay their premiums if their income is low enough and if their employer doesn't offer health insurance. But it's still expensive and a lot of people can't afford it."
"That would seem to make little sense. Why would the corporations that run your government want the expense of having to provide health insurance for their employees? Wouldn't it be more cost-effective for them to have your government pay for the medical needs of your people?"
"Well, first, most companies don't pay the entire cost of health insurance for their employees. Usually, they only pay part of the cost and the employees have to pay for the rest of it. What they do that does help their employees is negotiate with the insurance companies to secure a lower premium for their employees by guaranteeing a large number of new customers for the insurance companies."
"But such negotiations would seem to favor large corporations much more than small companies," observed Squid-boy.
I nodded. "Yep. And guess which kind of companies gives more money to politicians?"
The short alien snapped his beak at me but made no reply.
I turned back to his taller friend. "And, second, can you think of a more effective way of controlling the workforce? If you want to virtually guarantee a ready labor pool, what better way to do so than literally holding their lives hostage?"
Yax uncrossed his arms and looked at me thoughtfully. "You're right. That would seem to be an exceptionally efficient lever of control for the authorities in your society to use against the populace. But it would seem to have the side-effect of stifling innovation and entrepreneurship."
I snorted. "Of course it does. People don't dare take a chance on starting their own businesses because they can't risk what might happen if they or someone in their family gets sick. But do you honestly think big companies think that's a bad thing? Of course not; it just means there will be less competition for them. Plus, the fact that people are afraid of what might happen if they quit a job they don't like and then get sick means that companies can treat their employees badly with impunity. Because, no matter what they do to them, their employees probably won't go anywhere.""A very tidy little trap," mused Squid-boy.
I shrugged. "What else would you expect when so many people spent so much time, money, and effort designing it?"
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