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... 😉
Excerpt from Answers from Alyce:
"You were explaining how the high cost of healthcare in
your society has been used to justify limiting the salaries and benefits
offered to junior employees in the industry."
"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?"
Want to see what truisms Alyce has to reveal about our society? Grab your copy at the link below. Happy reading! 😊
