Insurance is the enemy of healthcare

Maybe this isn’t the most cogent argument I could find. Tell me where I can find more. But it does remind me that I should mention, for the record, that I think private insurance companies are the enemy of healthcare. In fact, they are almost always the enemy period.

Insurance should be about my giving my money to a pool so that those who need it most can get it when they need it. The administration should be only about gathering the pool of money and doling it out fairly. There should be no profit in this. I don’t care one whit about “shareholders” and “minimizing costs.” I care about getting people the help they need.

In the names of efficiency and profit our insurance companies have become the enemy. They take our money into their pools all right. But then they work very hard to never give it out at all. This is wrong. Perhaps even evil. Certainly not something we should stand for and celebrate.

In healthcare there is an alternative model available: single payer. Who is that single payer? The government. Why the government? Because it is a “pool” we all belong to already. We need to cut insurance companies out of picture before they milk us all dry to no good end. They may be “efficient,” but the gains of this efficiency are going to a few big shareholders. This is wrong. We should all hold shares in this risky business.