Having, securing, obtaining, possessing, acquiring are necessary for survival while meeting one's physiological needs. However, having more when it comes to private property or ownership as my wife ,my kids , my slave , my unlimited right to keep what I have ; it’s not yours ;with excluding interferes with society, and with greed becomes criminal and amoral. Buddha described the ownership behavior as a craving; the Jewish and Christian religions as coveting as it can transform everybody and anything into something they had and subject to another's power Capitalism requires a having mode of behavior.
Having ,as a pursuit or a passion, takes on the traits and tendencies of an anal character. During psychosexual development, the individual goes through a passive receptivity followed by a phase of aggression. It’s an exploitive receptivity prior to reaching ego maturity. The stage has been called anal erotic when it remains dominant during a person's development and leads to an anal character . Personality is characterized when one's main energy in life is directed toward saving, hoarding money , material things, feelings, gestures, words, and energy. The character of a stingy individual is associated with other traits such as orderliness, punctuality, and stubbornness . The qualities of the anal character constituted the norm for moral behavior and was once looked upon as an expression of human nature. In other words, orientation of possession occurs in the period before the achievement of full ego maturity and is pathological when it remains permanent. The person is primarily focused and concerned with having, possessing and is associated with neurosis . When it comes to society in which most members have that anal character, we have a neurotic society.
For capitalism to work successfully we have consumption, possessing, and the pursuit of profit and greed. The pattern of coveting and acquiring profit becomes sought at the highest levels as represented by income inequality.. In our society, greed and an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power ,prestige and possession becomes one's passions. Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street said "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." This disquisition addresses the problem of physical and mental health within a greedy capitalistic health care system.
A few statistics pertaining to countries with the best healthcare: 1. South Korea 2. Taiwan, 3. Denmark 4. Austria . 5. Japan 6. Australia 7 8. Spain 9. Norway 10. Canada 11. United States. These countries were ranked according to factors that contribute to overall health. On another scale that measured healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP from lowest to highest, are the following 1. New Zealand 2. Austria 3.. Netherlands 4. United Kingdom 5. Norway 6. Canada 7. Sweden 9. Germany 10. Switzerland 11. United States.
The healthiest countries in the world are as follows: 1. Spain 2. Italy 3. Iceland 4. Japan 5. Switzerland 6. Sweden 7. Australia 8. Singapore 9. Norway 10. Israel. The US is not the healthiest country in general with its national obesity, diabetes, cardiology , respiratory and Covid-19 rates . However, USA's massive capacity to research, communicate and respond to pandemic level threat, biosecurity, biosafety epidemiology, workforce capacity, test and approve new countermeasures ,communication with healthcare workers are examples of strength in our country.
Having a healthcare insurance system in a capitalistic model is counterproductive and interferes when it comes to the health of individuals. We have excellent doctors and world renowned hospitals. A major problem lies with health insurance. The system of corporations and large businesses only providing healthcare coverage for their full-time workers is amoral and capitalistic . Then , at age 65, one is eligible for Medicare . One political party wants to reduce and/or eliminate the age for Medicare while the other party wants to increase age eligibility . The major problem is that the insurance industry dictates who is eligible for benefits, the when , the where and the degree of coverage. The exclusion of coverage is based on profit for the insurance company and only them. They are the middleman between patient and doctor. With this middleman, their motive has nothing to do with providing top level healthcare. Their motive is to make a profit. With the pursuit of profit as the primary goal , comes greed.
Older citizens generally require more medical services. At age 65, Medicare was devised as a safety net for older citizens. When one is eligible for Medicare, one can purchase a supplement or secondary payer. Unfortunately, that supplement costs more per month than Medicare. If Medicare doesn't pay for the service, then the secondary carrier doesn't pay for that service either. The government came up with an idea that it would pay more per patient to those supplementary carriers for sick individuals, providing that the carrier would come up with a system that would actually reduce inflationary costs. Okay, get more money per patient, but come up with a better healthcare system sounds reasonable. What happened ? The October 9, 2022 edition of the New York Times had an article titled” How Insurance Firms Exploited Medicare Advantage for Billions .”
Briefly, Medicare Advantage was a clever term employed to seduce individuals eligible for Medicare. The advantage was for the insurance company, not the patient. The insurance companies were going to give dental , vision , hearing benefits when joining their network of doctors. However, eight of the 10 largest insurance companies in the country which includes UnitedHealth Group; Humana, CVS Health, Cigna , Kaiser Permanente , Scan Group have been charged with overbilling or fraud by the Justice Department. In order to get additional money, these insurance companies falsified the health records of their patients. They sent the government medical diagnoses that were old, in addition to the current diagnosis. These old diagnostic categories were previously treated . In other words, they falsified the health records by giving incorrect assessments of each patient in order to receive additional money. Yes, they falsely obtained billions.
A second article titled "Curtailing Diabetes Requires More Than Medicine" Identified and pointed out the severity of Type 2 diabetes regardless of the new tools or pills for managing it. Better treatments have done little to stem the rise of this disease. They predicted that one in seven American adults will have Type 2 diabetes, up from one and 20 in the 1970s. Many teenagers are developing what was once considered to be a condition for older people. 40% of young adults are to be diagnosed with that diagnosis at some point in their lives. Researchers who study Type 2 diabetes reported a stark conclusion. There was no device, no drug powerful enough to counter the effects of poverty, pollution, stress, broken junk food system, cities that are hard to manage ,conflict and an inequitable access to healthcare specially for minority communities.
I would add that state and federal politics, lobbyists and big business are not helpful either. So it's no surprise that poverty ( minimum wage in Texas is $7.25) ; pollution (does anyone want to drink the water in Flint, Michigan?) ; stress (just follow politics in the upcoming 2022 election) ; broken food system (the poor can't purchase healthy foods . Regarding supermarkets, typically, supermarkets have about 15 aisles of which only 3 contain produce, meat and dairy. The remaining 12 have manufactured foods or GMO sugar ,salt contaminants. Also, there is limited availability in many communities for doctors.
It's clear that the health of our country, especially for black and brown people, are not a priority. The priority in this country is profit. Economic dominance, profit, power, greed, as evidenced by the income inequality and the Forbes listing of the billionaires in this country. One small step would be to have healthcare for all and not call it socialized medicine; increase minimum wage; and create oversight with consequences regarding the "broken food system." Yes, take healthcare insurance out of the capitalistic model and put the health of the nation before profit.
Put the government in charge of keeping its citizens healthy. Some, and we know who they are, would claim that the government is inefficient. Back in the 30s and 40s, our government under FDR and Keynesian economic approach proved differently. In fact, Detroit was referred to as the Arsenal of Democracy in World War II and economic programs benefited the country at large until the 70s and 80s with Reagan and Milton Friedman and their trickle-down economic nonsense. Reagan said the government was the problem. He was right ,as he ran the government. Back then in the 50s and 60s, our nation did not have the income inequality as we do now. Yes, the rich were wealthy and the CEOs didn't make more than 100 times more than their workers; professional athletes worked in the off-season to support their families. A high school buddy Dave worked for General Motors in a white-collar position .Dave and Darlene lived in St. Clair Shores with boats and other vehicles, and retired to Florida. Dave was an example of the middle class exploding during those times when wages were up and unemployment down. The government's economic policies had the G.I. Bill which provided college education and mortgage assistance. The Marshall plan rebuilt war-torn Europe with American products. The National Interstate and Defense Highways Act allowed the gas guzzling vehicles to move freely and a defense system that ballooned with each new communist threat real or imagined. In other words, our country did well with the government behind economic policies and a shared prosperity compared to now. Yes, the government can manage healthcare and deal with fixing pollution, poverty, regulating the food and drug industry with their abuses. This country has no need for the exploitation and draconian politics of insurance. Put the government back in charge as we are best served when that happens, compared to private profit. October 2,2022 , The New York Times, “Populist Mechanics.”
PS
The government is enmeshed with our poor mental and physical health by its politics on military engagement; unequal tax ; failing public schools; poverty; pollution; unregulated toxic chemicals like Round-Up, Camp Lejeune, alcohol, nicotine ,drugs, etc.; poorly regulated food industry; false and exploitive advertising messaging. Therefore, the government should play a significant role and actually provide public services, provide economic security and assistance and pay its fair share for treatment .
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