Healthcare rant supplement

I realized while compulsively rereading my previous post that it was a little meandering. This is partially due to the fact that politicians, citizens and the media are capable of talking about this serious and nuanced issue for HOURS using nothing but empty, out-of-context buzz words all the while pretending it counts as substantive discourse. This offends me not just as a writer or a member of this community, but as a living being with a brain. Consequently, I may have spent more time thinking up zingers than making sense. My apologies.

However, the chief problem was that I attempted to dance around the issue most central to any article written on the topic. I failed to adequately address and explain my own feeling as to whether or not we should adopt some sort of national federal healthcare system as seems to be the plan.

That's because I don't know how I feel.

I don't like to use such titles, but in this case I feel it may save us some time. I consider myself to be an anarchist of a kind. This is primarily because I believe that large-scale, hierarchical society is a dangerous, destructive thing which rewards terrible behavior while simultaneously providing an ethical and logistical shield for that behavior. I relate very strongly to the new tribalists. I agree that tribe and band scale civilization is the way to go in the long run. I am not -- obviously -- a primitivist, but most importantly, I do not presume to have all the answers. I do not claim to know what the stable, sustainable and sane culture I hope to see will look like. However, I must point out -- emphatically -- that what we are doing now is not working.

Would I like to have free or at least more affordable healthcare at my disposal? Of course I would, don't be stupid.

The real question is whether or not I can justify it. It's problematic to say the least. A system so vast could only be managed by the kind of massive bureaucracy I despise.

Come to think of it, healthcare is a major sticking point for most people when I'm selling the whole new tribalism package. While I do believe it should be possible to decentralize without losing MRI scanners and dialysis machines and whatnot, realistically I expect we shall have to do without much of that.

What if you get sick or seriously injured? This is the obvious question, and I have no easy answer for it. Things will be difficult, to be certain. However, I am also certain that life beyond our current insane civilization -- life without work-related stress and injury, without the poisons of industry, without the cars and the tanks and the stealth bombers will be many times healthier than life is now. On the whole, it will be better for people. This I believe.

I know that sounds harsh -- "Things will be difficult," -- harsh and ominous and maybe even evil. It sounds, but it isn't. I am not advocating a world in which we eschew all technology -- provided it can be used responsibly. I am also not advocating a system in which we all follow strict rules of behavior. Such matters would be delegated to the individuals in one's own tribe of willing participants. I see no reason why a tribe or many tribes would be unable to dedicate time and energy to caring for the ill. Most would, I suspect. The level of care provided -- and the level of commitment required by the fit -- in such an arrangement would always be tailored to the will of the participants.

Contrast that to the situation we have now in the United States. Many are without insurance and thus if a serious issue arises, must seek emergency treatment and possibly crippling debt. Those fortunate enough to have medical insurance pay monthly fees to a corporation which exists primarily to turn a profit. If something happens and medical care is required, these companies actually employ people tasked with finding a way to avoid paying for it. You could fill the corporation's coffers for decades only to be dropped at the moment you need their services in exchange.

Who's evil now?

That said, we do not live in the world of my imagination. We live here, now. I believe that world can exist, but I know it will not happen overnight. Would I like to see some sort of less evil alternative to the current system in the meantime? Of course I would, don't be stupid.

The danger, I think, would be to inflate such a minor concession into a victory of any substance. In fact, we would have to be particularly wary of the new power dynamic it would create. I do think, though, that in the short term, it would likely be better to put something like healthcare into the hands of a body that at least has to pretend to listen to us.