Healthcare

reform: (noun or verb) [to put or change into] an improved form or condition b: to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses. *Merriam Webster Online

Obama’s healthcare plan creates a new entity (unnamed as of yet) to guarantee eligibility for the UNINSURED; those who are insured are allowed to keep their insurance provider. His program would allow subsidies for families, easier enrollment into the program, reined costs of services (non-medical, just administrative), affordable premiums, comprehensive benefits, quality control and efficiency throughout all levels of the program. Obama also plans to look establish a watchdog group / mediator for the private sector of the health industry (it's called the National Health Insurance Exchange). Technically, that is Obama’s plan and it's not healthcare reform, because healthcare is privatized in the United States. Healthcare today is a goods and service industry, rather than a humanitarian institution (these two terms are interchangeable by their broad implications, but I’m hoping you guys can catch my drift here). The reasons why I’m in favor of his plan is because it’s an actual effort (though it may not come true) to think bright, while McCain’s advisers are a bunch of Melvins who poke fun at the interests of the public, as his plan illustrates a trite overture of what they believe is healthcare “reform”.

As I have done with Obama’s healthcare plan—which I got from his website—I will summarize McCain’s palaver on healthcare rather briefly. All in all, McCain wants to refurbish the technicalities of the healthcare system (and as I’ve mentioned previously, is privatized, unaccountable to the concerns and preferences of human individuals, but totally attentive to consumer concerns and preferences), by promoting free market competition “in order to meet needs” (of the bunch of whiners). Now, you can check out his website and read for yourself—it’s not technical at all, just annotations. It’s like one of those local commercials for the county senior retirement community.

These are their healthcare plans in a healthcare system that is a wannabe free market industry, and where there is more profit to gain in every ounce of medical treatment than pound of preventive practice or science. It is also imperative to note the highly intertwined cheap eats industry and sedentary/stressful lifestyles so often imposed on the average Joe. Since the early 1990s, no longer is depression, weight gain, migraines, palpitations, etc, related to one’s lifestyle when looking for its treatment . . . instead it’s a condition, which Product X, or Y, can treat. No longer are links drawn between the oppressive forebearance of looking for a job, maintaining it, paying off your debts, spending most of your life indoors instead of outdoors, eating artificialities, looking forward to the weekend or the intermittent recreational activity while living the rest of your time in work—that dreary thing called making a living, no longer is this nexus carried over in the pyschosomatic treatment. It’s just pills, liquids, and the latest medical treatment, “to help you get through your day”. Boy, I sure wish Adam Smith was around to set things straight . . .