Today I read this article in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/business/health-care-and-pursuit-of-profit-make-a-poor-mix.html?pagewanted=all
For those who read this blog and The Malformation of Health Care book http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009V37CXU you already understand my position on what this article says (the author is preaching to the choir).
I find it fascinating that no matter how many discussions, articles, programs, books, take on this topic; these companies still have the audacity to continue acting in bad faith.
What will it take for incredibly high powered, well lobbied, excessively wealthy companies to become accountable for bad practices?
I'm sickened to say, probably "nothing".
Despite the claim that corporations are people, corporations (especially on this high of a financial level) do not have an internal moral compass. Most people who work for these companies are at the mercy of this corrupt system just as much as the customers who pay their premiums each month in hopes their policy will cover them should tragedy strike.
This is not capitalism. This is greed.
The reason I say this is because I know what the ideals of capitalism are, I grew up on them. My family owned a small hardware store for over 100 years. The reason the company lasted for 100 years was because of the pride taken in our services and products. We didn't force anyone to shop at our store, but we gained loyal customers, based on our integrity.
We offered competitive prices and guaranteed our products and our work. If a customer came in to the store and said a product was faulty and we didn't either exchange the product or fix the issue, we would have been run out of town. No customer would have shopped with us.
When a health insurance customer comes to the provider with a problem, many times they are ignored, avoided, or told of a previously undisclosed "loophole" that frees the insurance from all coverage obligation.
Capitalism only works when those servicing the population understand that first and foremost they are performing a service for the community. Profits come when that service is performed well. If that service is performed poorly, profits should be reflected.
That is capitalism.
That is not what is going on currently within our health insurance system.
This blog is intended to Create Positive Effective Change! Erin Havel is a Leukemia and AVM survivor, the author of The Malformation of Health Care book now available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009V37CXU and a Huffington Post Blogger see those postings here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erin-havel/
Well, quite interesting and very true as well. I am completely agreed that capitalism only works when those servicing the population understand that first and foremost they are performing a service for the community. People looking for profit must go for the performance of that service. Nothing else can help do this.
ReplyDeleteThe book - The Malformation of Health Care is really worth reading it. I have just completed this book couple of days back.
ReplyDeleteThe public hates health insurance companies. They believe they are greedy and put profits before people's health. This is personal for people, so many of whom have their own health insurance horror stories.
ReplyDeleteIn many cases health insurance companies just don't work well enough & not willing to help their customers at all...Thankfully it hasn't happened to me so far, but i have heard about so many bad stories from others...
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