Health Care Plan Plus: A Statement Strike
Oxz (Richard Martin Oxman)

Your starting point has to be that anything that Obama’s proposing respecting health care coverage is way deficient, insufficient to address the needs of the vast majority of people in the U.S. That anything any president would put on the table would have too many downsides for too many people.

What’s below is my PLAN for Health Care Improvement and more. What I call my Health Care Plan Plus.

The “Plus” has to do with tons of other issues. Like Africa-size garbage dumps of plastic in the Pacific Ocean (which I discuss with “J” regularly; see http://www.wallacejnichols.org/wallacejnichols/About_J..html) and AFRICOM [which I would like to discuss with Ann Wright (http://www.democracynow.org/2005/8/19/army_vet_ann_wright_running_fie ld) regularly.] AND A TON OF OTHER ISSUES. For they are all related, can be connected with in a meaningful way.

But… back to health care.

Even if someone were to snap their fingers so that we had Medicare-level coverage for one and all overnight, that would not be good enough. Not nearly. Even if the Medicare-type coverage were not watered down along the lines of what is currently being planned.

Why? For two main reasons (though there are more than two). One, Medicare, as it stands, is far too expensive for far too many people; comprehensive medical/dental attention, health care prevention, etc. is virtually unaffordable. Two, the quality of medical care is — to put it midly — quite sad. Incompetence rules the roost. And that’s the case not is small part because of the role that GREED plays in the profession. An element that can be addressed if we put pressure on the powers that be to transform the status quo.

ENTER Health Care Plan Plus.

We can deal with that problem of medical care quality down the line. But first we must address the need for a NATIONAL HEALTH CARE CRISIS STRIKE.

I’m not talking about medical professionals going on strike. I’m talking about patients and wannabe patients going to their doctors for exams, etc., AND NOT PAYING THE BILLS WHICH THEY RECEIVE.

I recently went to an ear doctor, a specialist, to have wax removed. I had asked the receptionist if my meeting with the doctor would be covered by Medicare, and she said yes. I made it quite clear that that was important because I couldn’t afford to pay for a visit to a specialist otherwise. “No problem,” was what she said. And with that green light I walked into the appointment. Shortly thereafter I received a bill. Medicare had paid part of the huge $250 Statement of Account. Still, I was being asked to foot $158.19.

When I complained to the billing person that the receptionist misrepresented the situation, I was informed that it was my responsibility to have checked my deductible. She was right on a couple of counts. Certainly, legally she was in the correct corner. But I started to get physically sick the more I thought about the whole shebang.

What did she say? Oh, yes, she’d tell the receptionist to draw attention to consideration of deductibles in the future. Particularly with the elderly. Oh, really? And then what? They could opt to not go through with the appointment? Leave the wax in their ears? Let the arm stay broken? Permit the retina to be fucked up another month until — maybe — some money came in? And so on. I’m going to spare you the analogies from other realms which run parallel to this disingenuous medical practice. I think that everyone who is inundated with unaffordable billing can relate without further details. The thrust of my point is that too much is being charged for services and products that are essential, that should not be provided contingent upon income or wealth.

LOOK, this is serious shit. This is a serious scam. A scam that can be undermined big time with some movement in solidarity. And the proposed movement in solidarity SHOULD be embraced. Immediately. For not only is there money available, by changing our priorities on expenditures — like $ for health care in lieu of $ for abominations abroad — the whole world will be a better place, better off, benefiting immensely from what we do.

Citizens should continue to go to their doctors. But when the bill arrives, don’t pay it. The idea would be to encourage patients to take care of essential concerns. To put pressure on the powers that be to seriously consider transforming health care coverage radically. To stop the bullshit. To put a dent in GREED ‘cross the board, not just in the medical profession. To encourage the kind of attitudinal set about the medical profession which exists in, say, Cuba, where — for all its faults — it can boast of having highly qualified doctors working at workers’ wages. Professionals who volunteer on a massive scale to address health issues outside of their own country. On an ongoing basis. [Recently, Venezuela agreed to provide transportation (with Cuba providing surgery) for poor American citizens to receive eye operations of diverse kinds.]

The vast majority of people with health care needs (which represents the vast majority of the country) would not have anything to lose. A STATEMENT STRIKE might be a problem for some people because of assets they hold, or for other reasons. But for most citizens in need this would be an action with few or no downsides. Of course, there would be a lot of unnecessary procedures performed because of hypochondria, etc. But that would be small potatoes when juxtaposed with the rip-offs which are routine in the medical profession at present. Just like health care coverage costs, in general, are small potatoes when placed next to the costs of our unnecessary, illegal, unconstitutional wars. Or should I say… OUR WAR CRIMES.

And speaking of potatoes, the above — granted — is half-baked. That said, the details can be discussed.

The main point is that whereas, say, calls for rent strikes in the past posed a huge problem potentially for renters who feared that they might be put out on the street, this STATEMENT STRIKE does not involve anything of the sort. And, again, it could — unlike what’s on the table at present (and for the future) — create historic ripples.

I mean, what would we be worried about? A clogged Small Claims Court? Being disrespectful to medical professionals? Not being able to return to a given doc? What our rich neighbors might say? Afraid of having one’s credit record damaged? [This can be addressed.] C’mon, I really want to know. It’s feedback time… so that we can have payback time. Too many people have been getting ripped off for far too long.

http://www.counterpunch.org/ginsburg10162009.html inspired this piece. That and my TOSCA http://oxtogrind.org/archive/364 agenda.

Contact Richard at tosca.2010@yahoo.com.
P.S. Above just about all else, in schools we are taught to respect authority figures. To be obedient. With medical professionals, we’re encouraged to always defer to their judgment. Not even queston too much. There’s so much unhealthy bullshit attached to this dynamic, I don’t know where to begin. Except to start trouble in this realm with the STATEMENT STRIKE… which will help the public to self-educate, and create a watershed in history.