Archive for December, 2009
Getting Your Money’s Worth
One of my father’s traits that I inherited is a deep loathing of paying more for something than it is worth. I can spend a lot or a little on just about anything as it is not the amount that necessarily bothers me. I paid around $1,500 for my current computer and am absolutely in love with it as it is easily worth $3,000. However, when Burger king offers a hamburger for $0.99 and a cheeseburger for $1.49, I am offended at the prospect of paying 50 cents for a &$%@ing slice of cheese!!
Some of you may remember a couple of posts I’ve made in the past regarding our health care system in the USA. Everyone in the world agrees that we suck when it comes to health care. Well here we are with a bill in the Senate and our political wonder boys haranguing each other over exactly what the bill will say. This is good news, although bittersweet. Over the last year, Republicans and Democrats have traded barbs over this subject, using it as a club with which to beat each other bloody. Yay for politics in America. High five.
One of the sticking points has been this notion of government involvement within a capitalist society. The Democrats say that health care is so screwed up in this country, the government has to get involved and be a sounding board of sorts for the health insurance companies. You see, while the rest of the company has lost their asses this last two years, with mortgages as much as twice as much of the value of their house; no work to be found anywhere; and foreclosure now a household word… the health insurance companies have made record profits. Kind of like oil companies. In the last decade, where your income has raised a paltry amount amidst intermittent years of salary freezes and union concessions, the amount you pay for health care has doubled!
Is our health care now twice as good as was a decade ago? Or did the health insurance companies finally figure out that although cheese only costs 3 cents, a cheeseburger will sell for 50 cents more than a hamburger? Actually, it’s even worse… it’s extortion in the worst sense of the word. Al Capone never had as a good of a racket. You say you don’t like the price of your health insurance? You aren’t getting your money’s worth? Heck, it’s a free country and you don’t have to buy insurance or you can just shop around for something better, right? Right?
Health Care Costs Compared
This is the sort of thing that simply enrages me. Countries with the best health care in the entire world are paying HALF of what we do in the USA. Countries that our ignorant asses scoff at and proclaim as inferior.