Is Universal Health Insurance Like Universal Auto Insurance?

This question was raised by an interesting (if right-leaning) gentleman who calls himself “Blogsniper” in the Comments section of the Altoona Mirror Opinion Forums. And (though I have, more than once, nastily referred to him as a “neo-con Appalachian hayseed” this time he presents us with an excellent analogy. And with that, he has redeemed himself (permanently?) in my eyes. You can read all his comments on the subject here. Blogsniper, unsurprisingly, believes that we can avoid involving yet another layer of government bureaucracy by having a Pennsylvania-vehicle-code based health insurance plan administered by the private sector, and I’ll discuss that as well in the following analysis.

“Blogs” (as he is affectionately known to his right-leaning “comrades“) may make us a good socialist cohort yet, even without having to pry his cold dead fingers from his bible and gun. At the very least, his insight provides us a new angle from which to evaluate why one piece of common sense legislation is so readily accepted by the public while another similarly reasonable proposal can cause such bitter divisions. So, let's get on with the discussion:

From Whence Come Fear and Loathing? It’s Just Insurance!

In the case of universal auto coverage there were never any angry town hall meetings. And certainly no one felt the need to wear guns to the discussion. In fact, I don’t think there ever was much discussion; because unlike its evil twin -- universal health insurance -- it was never associated with issues of race or class. So, its practical necessity could easily be grasped by the whole citizenry -- the rich and poor alike. That’s why we now not only already have mandatory universal auto insurance -- we take it for granted. We already have it because the concept is so easy to identify with regardless of where you stand in the economic food chain. It’s based on the simple realization that most of us can’t afford to pay for a new car every month. So we all have it. No one objects. No one calls it socialism. No one would ever think to bother comparing it to the European system. None of the talking heads on the tube are trying to convince us that it is some grand totalitarian scheme. We just drive our cars with some confidence that the guy who hits us at a stop sign also has it, and neither of us is going to entirely loose our ass .

Enter the Puppet Masters

As for who should administers such a universal health care program -- is there really any difference between government and private business? Not really. The beast may look like two separate pieces of machinery. But it’s not. It's a single beast with two heads. It’s one big contraption run by the same people. That’s why politicians go directly through the revolving door into private companies when they leave office. (Think Daschle and Santorum). It’s also why only private companies pick and fund the candidates who run for office. They choose them and then return them through that same revolving door right back into government. It’s sort of a perpetual game of musical chairs for affluent adults.
Given that the same group of individuals is always involved in this game, it is easy to understand why levels of competence and incompetence are equal on either side -- the public sector and the private. Government is stupid and greedy. We all know that. We know it because so much of what it does is in fact, legally mandated to actually be “public“. But private industry, by its very structure is simply less transparent in how it operates. It is, as the term infers, “private”. And we are expected to keep our noses out. So, it has managed to mask its stupidity and greed in this myth of an amazingly well oiled machine called the free market. In fact, there is no free market. No efficient market. There is only an interdependent coalition of insiders on both sides of the fence, governmental and corporate, manipulating the marketplace through a matrix of expedient legislation, interlocking individual interests, the special favors of lobbyists and the secret agreements of the privileged few. The movement of markets is based not on the public good but on the narrow self interests of those giving the orders. They (those who run both public and private sectors) are all the same people, all wearing the same Hickey Freeman suits, eating at the same upscale restaurants and playing golf together at the same country clubs. And they all have matching collective IQ’s whether they are sitting in the Oval office or in the Chief Executive Suites of the Fortune 500. And none of them -- absolutely none of them -- neither the corporate leeches nor the political leeches -- give a damn about you or me.

If you find that picture of private industry hard to swallow, try being a shareholder in a publicly held private corporation. It won’t take long to see where you stand in the pecking order. Especially if you try to question executive compensation for poor performing managers, or the need for decreasing dividend payments to shareholders, excessive perks, corporate jets, golden parachutes, padded severance packages to encourage the departure of bungling executives, overgenerous contracts awarded to golf buddies, or simultaneous contributions to opposing political candidates. Let’s just say your concerns will be as graciously acknowledged as they will be quickly assigned to the nearest dust bin. To the leeches who run the private sector, as to the politicians and bureaucrats who run the public, all we’re good for is paying the bill on their free lunch.

Is Universal Health Insurance Like Universal Auto Insurance? by jimmi malarky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at malarkyspond.blogspot.com.
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