How about profit-free health care for all?

Throughout last year's campaign for the White House, the primary issues of concern were the economy and the wars we're waging in Afghanistan and Iraq. There were a host of issues lost in this narrow perspective. Chief among these issue is health care.

I don't want to overstate the lack of attention given to this important issue. It was talked about, but rarely in manner that provided much in the way of depth or substance. And the primary context under which such conversations were held was the relationship between health care and the economy.

It's true that health care is an economic issue, and the issues associated with the costs of delivering and providing health care (as well as research, training of health care providers, and so on) deserve attention. Economics should factor into decisions made about health care. But they should only factor into the conversation as we move to details, after broader decisions are made. Economics should factor into, not drive the direction of the future of health care in the United States.

Thanks to some recent polling, we now know that approximately 119 million Americans support single-payer health care. So then why are advocates of single-payer not at the table as representatives from the insurance industry, big pharm, Congress, and other for-profit industries that profit on our current reactive, for-profit model meet to discuss the future of health care?

It appears that public opinion is not factoring into the decisions that will be made regarding the future of health care. The only way single-payer advocates can be heard is if they disrupt and protest the proceedings to point out this glaring omission. This has occurred several times, as nurses and doctors have interrupted proceedings and been arrested to draw attention to the issue.

The issue is of vital importance as the lobbyists and marketing & PR machines hired by the for-profit insurance and pharmaceutical industries get moving. Side note - is there a greater convergence of evil than PR, marketing, big pharm, and insurance companies? Iraq, Iran, and North Korea ain't got shit on these douchebags.

It is an outrage that individuals who are not involved in research, prevention, and the delivery of care operate with a for-profit mindset. They run their companies as if health care was simply another commodity, like sweaters and stereos. And we shouldn't let the health care providers off easy either.

The American Medical Association (AMA) and other such professional organizations have been way too quiet on this issue. And some doctors are just as guilty as insurance and pharmaceutical companies in adopting a medicine-for-profit mentality. I understand you went to school for a long time, but if service isn't part of why you do what you do, you should do something else. I hear the pharmaceutical companies are hiring.

The reality is that while I surely don't think of health care as a commodity or service industry, as a culture we have constructed it as such. We believe access to health care is the same as access to designer brand clothing. It is determined by how much money you have and the highest quality of both is limited to those who can pay the most for it. That's the American way.

It's also the American way to pretend things aren't as bad as they are. As long as we can tune in to American Idol and wonder about the sexual identity of the participants, we're doing just fine. The problem is that we're not doing fine.

In addition to people not being able to afford and/or access quality health care, we also see the impacts of our current model in terms of developing new treatments and cures.

We see the impact of profit margins in the research and development of drugs that prolong life and, in some cases, improve the quality of live. A great example of this is the amount of money we've spent on cancer research and the results this spending has yielded. We have made great progress in early detection, treatment, and improving quality of life. But these are not cures.

But like all drug dealers, big pharm wants you to be a loyal customer that always comes back. The money is in treatment, not cures. Chris Rock said it best when he said, "You think the government is gonna cure AIDS? NOO! They can't even cure athlete's foot!!! The government curing AIDS? That's like Cadillac making a car that last for fifty years... and you know they can do it! But they ain't gonna do something that fucking dumb! Shit! They got metal on the space shuttle that can go around the moon and withstand temperatures up to 20,000 degrees. You mean to tell me you don't think they can make an El Dorado where the fucking bumper don't fall off?"

Just like we can make quality health care a right, and available to all; we just don't.