The Rubes of which you speak - of them I know many. They are real. They are human. And they believe in what they want. I believe that - and this is elitist - we, as those with or without privilege and education and information access without bias - or, the ability to discern and examine, with cognitive awareness of those biased realities...
We must realize that people aren't puzzles to be figured out. People are unique and have ideas and dreams, and that they will never be what you want. They'll never be what they want, and what 'we' want. But at the heart of things I do not believe we are so far apart. At the seams, things aren't so dark there is no light.
I'd wish I had an answer for this without bias. I have affluent parents who pay the price of the things that I need to live in my daily life through trust and gift without query, or in surprise, because I chose a career that pays unusually low - teaching music and performing orchestral music.
Pakman broke it down (while notably omitting pat from enough time as second mic to chime in) - yes, you can go to the emergency room. But if the underlying condition is mid to late stage cancer, you will not only -- if uninsured -- pay it with your savings, and estate - but statistically, in probability, more than every other group with any kind of insurance within the developed world, whether universal single payer or those in the US with employer or private based health insurance - have a significant chance based in clear, empirical evidence of dying.
The system is flawed because it means well, and ends poorly.
An example: I - because of trust fund payments and 'yo pops send me cash. Yay. Cash' - can see any doctor, anywhere, for any reason, and get any treatment I want. Only a few people are that lucky. And of those few, a pathetic number realize it. So, I get the care I need, and medicine.
But, let's say I don't.
And, I don't have insurance.
I have to call 911.
That means - at any given time, there are dispatchers -- RIGHT THAT SECOND -- dealing with someone needing emergency response - Medical, Fire, or Police -- routing calls, getting location information. Someone who has a heart attack isn't prioritized based on anything other than when and where the call came in, and what code the responding units choose to call in.
So, I have no insurance, let's say. I'm having, hypothetically, psychiatric delusions or hallucinations, or suicidal ideation.
Or, insomnia caused by an underlying condition because I forgot to pick up medication or couldn't afford it, and all. Or something.
I just took up substantial resources that could have been prevented in the first place. At the same time emergency medical resources pulls in with a guy who worked in steel union number 8403720e37 and paid into his pension all his life. Good for him. He has insurance. Mhmmm.
Isn't that ironic?!
Because right now, a metal element, in surplus, imbalance, and stuff, is letting me hear him die in the emergency room next to me! Woah!
And damn, a while later, he's dead. His insurance may or may not pay for the cost in treatment he received even though he went into the OR with surgeons and cardiac specialists, and lipitor sales reps putting up banners on the OR walls so if he does live, people know who to thank.
And me? Well let's say I can't afford the care in the hospital. Let's say I go to a psychiatric hospital and can't pay for that either. In both scenarios without a safety net, and even in the best case scenario, I'm OK, but people still die because of the fact that preventative care isn't emphasized enough.
Ron Anderson - a great guy - had a vision, that we not just have a public hospital, here in Dallas County, but that we have a public hospital system. That we have mobile ice-cream-truck style clinics that went to communities to see people. That we had satellite clinics in areas where people needed access to care but couldn't afford it. That we paid more. And did more. And WE TAXED MORE.
The reason health care is so expensive is because we have unrealistic ideations about how care should be applied.
You can't fucking stop a ship from sinking gauging it by looking over the stern, and now the bow.
Let's say in these hypotheticals - this psychiatric broski without insurance, that spent ER resources and time for a panic attack, or whatever, and the guy who had a heart attack and died, and all - his insurance got billed, and I didn't pay anything, and ended up costing our system more money because of less treatment options available...all of that drives up the cost of care. Drug companies....phonies if I ever saw them, come in here. Acting concerned, and all. Drive up costs.
Coming in through the windows, really...
These policies toward pharmaceutical regulation, at emphasization as a last resort as a means of preventative care, and as such a forced reliance on emergency room care for which many cannot pay their bills, is passed on to those with insurance...it's unsustainable.
And at some point, will collapse.
People, in Dallas, are charitable.
This is Texas.
But what would be charitable is compassion and logic.
But sometimes for so many, many reasons we don't get that.
All I can offer in solace is that we do have a beautiful hospital where one can get care. And, if you can't afford the care you need after. You can sit in this --not being snarky or joshing -- nice garden and think on things.
And wonder whatever could be - if I weren't me.
