Gasp-Worthy Moment Passes Us By
You buy a can of soup from your grocery store. You aren’t that crazy about canned soup, but you like to have some around—you know, in case of emergency. One day you get hungry and you decide to eat some soup. You open the can and find it is empty. You call your grocery store and ask what the heck is going on. You paid them for a can of soup, and now your hungry, out $2, and you have no soup. They explain to you that they are no longer obligated to supply the soup to you once you’re hungry. You’re angry, but you figure that you just need to switch grocery stores. You talk to your neighbor. She says that she had a similar problem, except that her grocery store wouldn’t sell her any soup because she was hungry when she tried to make the purchase. You read of other incidents in the paper. At least one grocery store refuses to sell soup to people who are especially active, because, the store manager says, active people are much more likely to become hungry than are motionless people.
Do you:
A. Forgive the grocery stores because their first obligation is to their investors?
B. Burn down the grocery store and urinate on the ashes?
C. Ask for someone, perhaps that “government” who keeps taking your money, to provide a better option or to force the stores to actually deliver on the goods you’ve paid for?
There are plenty of things I don’t like about Bill Maher—his tendency to use the phrase “people like” to associate a problem with an imaginary group of people with some sort of similarities to a celebrity he specifically doesn’t approve of, for example. But now that HBO comes with my cheapest basic cable option, and Comedy Central doesn’t, I’m forced to turn to Bill as my primary source of media and political satire.
On episode 168 of Real Time With Bill Maher, Bill interviewed Wendell Potter, current Center for Media and Democracy Senior Fellow on Health Care and former Head of Corporate Communications for health insurance giant CIGNA. After 20 years in corporate business, Potter joined CMD in May of this year. While Maher’s other guests rightfully applauded Potter for this turnover, Bill left unexamined (unless you consider a knowing smirk thorough examination) Potter’s response to a question regarding the documentary, "Sicko," a Michael Moore film. Potter acknowledged that in 2007 he worked to discredit Michael Moore in hopes of reducing negative effects of the film on the profit margin of CIGNA. He then stated that, “Michael Moore got it right.” Cue Maher smirk.
Why don’t I hear any gasp? Oh, we already knew that our Health Insurance Companies are willing to actively mislead us about our health care in order to maintain or increase their profit margins? Why do we still write them checks? I don't have much choice right now, and you probably don't either.
Yes, the grocery store analogy is imperfect. Your grocery store actually makes money by selling you food. Your health insurance provider makes money by refusing you health care. Insurance as a profit maker doesn’t make any sense. If you want a health insurance company with the sole purpose of making health care affordable, the policy holders have to be the owners. Sounds an awful lot like government, doesn’t it?
President Obama and others have gone out of their way to convince us that the Public Option will not drive private companies out of business. But they should. The Public Option, and perhaps some NGO options that would operate somewhat similarly to credit unions, should make up a replacement plan for for-profit health insurance companies, which we should phase out. That way our providers’ first responsibility will be to their policy holders and the managers won’t earn exorbitant salaries. If you feel skeptical about that statement, compare the salaries of high-level public servants and NGO executive directors to those of insurance CEOs.
One aspect of the grocery store analogy that is perfect. The soup didn’t disappear once you got hungry; you never had any soup.
You buy a can of soup from your grocery store. You aren’t that crazy about canned soup, but you like to have some around—you know, in case of emergency. One day you get hungry and you decide to eat some soup. You open the can and find it is empty. You call your grocery store and ask what the heck is going on. You paid them for a can of soup, and now your hungry, out $2, and you have no soup. They explain to you that they are no longer obligated to supply the soup to you once you’re hungry. You’re angry, but you figure that you just need to switch grocery stores. You talk to your neighbor. She says that she had a similar problem, except that her grocery store wouldn’t sell her any soup because she was hungry when she tried to make the purchase. You read of other incidents in the paper. At least one grocery store refuses to sell soup to people who are especially active, because, the store manager says, active people are much more likely to become hungry than are motionless people.
Do you:
A. Forgive the grocery stores because their first obligation is to their investors?
B. Burn down the grocery store and urinate on the ashes?
C. Ask for someone, perhaps that “government” who keeps taking your money, to provide a better option or to force the stores to actually deliver on the goods you’ve paid for?
There are plenty of things I don’t like about Bill Maher—his tendency to use the phrase “people like” to associate a problem with an imaginary group of people with some sort of similarities to a celebrity he specifically doesn’t approve of, for example. But now that HBO comes with my cheapest basic cable option, and Comedy Central doesn’t, I’m forced to turn to Bill as my primary source of media and political satire.
On episode 168 of Real Time With Bill Maher, Bill interviewed Wendell Potter, current Center for Media and Democracy Senior Fellow on Health Care and former Head of Corporate Communications for health insurance giant CIGNA. After 20 years in corporate business, Potter joined CMD in May of this year. While Maher’s other guests rightfully applauded Potter for this turnover, Bill left unexamined (unless you consider a knowing smirk thorough examination) Potter’s response to a question regarding the documentary, "Sicko," a Michael Moore film. Potter acknowledged that in 2007 he worked to discredit Michael Moore in hopes of reducing negative effects of the film on the profit margin of CIGNA. He then stated that, “Michael Moore got it right.” Cue Maher smirk.
Why don’t I hear any gasp? Oh, we already knew that our Health Insurance Companies are willing to actively mislead us about our health care in order to maintain or increase their profit margins? Why do we still write them checks? I don't have much choice right now, and you probably don't either.
Yes, the grocery store analogy is imperfect. Your grocery store actually makes money by selling you food. Your health insurance provider makes money by refusing you health care. Insurance as a profit maker doesn’t make any sense. If you want a health insurance company with the sole purpose of making health care affordable, the policy holders have to be the owners. Sounds an awful lot like government, doesn’t it?
President Obama and others have gone out of their way to convince us that the Public Option will not drive private companies out of business. But they should. The Public Option, and perhaps some NGO options that would operate somewhat similarly to credit unions, should make up a replacement plan for for-profit health insurance companies, which we should phase out. That way our providers’ first responsibility will be to their policy holders and the managers won’t earn exorbitant salaries. If you feel skeptical about that statement, compare the salaries of high-level public servants and NGO executive directors to those of insurance CEOs.
One aspect of the grocery store analogy that is perfect. The soup didn’t disappear once you got hungry; you never had any soup.
Labels: Bill Maher, Corporate Deceit, Health Care, NGO, NPO, Public Option, Public Relations, Soup
posted by Anonymous | 2:22 AM
2 Comments:
I was in the audience at this Real Time taping. The "Michael Moore got it right" comment actually did draw gasps and double takes out of most of the audience.
So it's just Bill Maher who failed me. I feel better now.
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