Patient, Heal Thyself

At Whatcom Watch, we tend to spend lots of time talking about our ailing environment, and rightly so: How can we stop making Mother Earth sick? How might we take better care of what remains of the amazing ecosystem right here in the Pacific Northwest? How can we become better stewards and ensure that at the very least the birds, beasts, plants, trees and life-giving waters in our little corner of the world will remain healthy for generations to come?

Necessary, noble, even heroic efforts undertaken for an absolutely essential cause. For, as Mother Earth goes, so goes every species within her loving grasp, humankind included. But maybe we need to pay closer attention to another health concern, namely our own. Because the “health care” system (if you can call it that) that we subject ourselves to here in the richest, most powerful nation on earth is a deplorable, expensive, inefficient patchwork of stopgaps for most Americans. Our health care system is just plain sick; moribund for the majority of us, even deadly to those who need it most.

Lest you assume that health care reform would “only” benefit the unemployed, underemployed and working poor (what’s that, roughly 87 percent of the population these days?), those dastardly corporations could use some help, too. General Motors, for instance, boasts a terrific health care package for its employees. Problem is, that package adds about $1,500 to the cost of each GM vehicle produced, rendering them less competitive to the point where they have to cut some jobs and outsource others. The cost of our current health care system is putting American-based companies providing family-wage jobs into a corporate coma—it has become so prohibitively expensive to pay workers what they deserve and provide the benefits they so sorely need, that manufacturers like GM have been forced to, in effect, go to sleep. They’re kept alive by an IV drip consisting of ethically questionable government-imposed trade tactics (like capricious tariffs on foreign goods) and blatantly unjust economic policies (can you say “tax loopholes”?).

Not to mention the burden our bloated health care system places on small and family-owned businesses. It is in every single solitary American’s interest to reform this blight upon our economic, social and personal wellbeing. So let’s put an end to the right-wing BS about “socialized medicine” and “unnecessary government intrusion.” All of us deserve proper medical care, and the government is intruding far too much already in an effort to slap Band-Aids on the existing boondoggle propped up by greedy insurance companies and pharmaceutical conglomerates.

Then there’s this: Bankruptcy. When patients can’t pay their medical bills, they file for bankruptcy. It’s the number one killer of our economy. And what do you suppose happens to physicians who are slapped with malpractice suits, justified or not? And who do you suppose ends up paying for those high malpractice insurance rates? And who do you suppose ends up making tons of money from all this? Patients and doctors lose; insurance companies and lawyers win. They win big.

Bottom line? Somebody’s making buckets of money off of sick folks and/or those of us who are trying to protect ourselves from getting sick. Who’s sicker (sic), those of us who cannot afford proper care when we become ill? Those of us who cannot afford to pay the price of regular visits to the doctor, dentist or optometrist? The caregivers who provide those essential services? None of the above. We all deserve access to decent health care, and those who provide that care deserve a decent profit.

Who is the sickee (sic) here? Have you noticed all those tall buildings and stadiums named after insurance companies? How about all those costly TV commercials for drugs? The middle-men—those nattily attired Mercedes-driving insurance executives and drug peddlers who stand between you and your doctor—are making money hand over fist. And I think you can feel where that fist is going. It ain’t part of your normal prostate exam.

What’s that you say? You won’t go for “socialized medicine?” Let the private sector handle medical care, because the government will only screw things up? Look at yourself! Your so-called “health care” (or lack thereof) is a bloated, bureaucratic byproduct of the vaunted private sector. Why not let insurance agents and execs—and their corresponding drug company representatives—go out and get real jobs like you and me? Leave the practice of medicine between doctor and patient. And leave the administration of medicine’s cost to a far less expensive and more efficient governmental bureau not concerned with corporate profit, tall buildings, primetime commercials, silk suits and sports cars.

Last time I checked with Hippocrates, medical care was meant to be a universal service, not a privileged playground for the wealthy or graveyard for the poor. §

To contact Matthew, to add spice to this casserole, or to order his new book, “Original Recipes” (it’s a “best-of” collection of columns from 1985 to 1995, not, thank heavens, a cookbook!), please write to P.O. Box 28983, Bellingham, WA 98228; or email mdthuney@email.msn.com. You can find “Original Recipes” at Village Books in Bell-ingham or Pioneer Books in Ferndale.