A Close Look at the 'Corporate Option'

^{Washington Free Press Washington State's Nonprofit Journal of News, Ideas,
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featuring
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Latest Posts

TECHNOLOGY

Biodefense, Biolabs and Bugs Seattle City Council takes an important first step to safety Labwatch.org (Aug 9, 2010)

WAR

State of Denial After the big Wikileak, spinning for war Normon Solomon, cartoon by Dan McConnell (Aug 9, 2010)
Daniel Ellsberg to Testify in Tacoma Anti-war Trial event Aug 11 & 12 Lawrence Hildes (Aug 9, 2010)

AROUND WASHINGTON

DinoRossi-saurus, Traffic Ticket Cameras, West Nile Virus, etc. featuring cartoons by Dan McConnell (Aug 9, 2010)

MILITARY

Trident Nuclear Resisters Get Their Day in Court Ground Zero Center (Aug 9, 2010)
Washingtonians Arrested at Tennessee Anti-nuke Action Ground Zero Center (Aug 9, 2010)

LAW

News from the ACLU North Carolina and WA police would like to know your private information with cartoon by John Ambrosavage (Aug 9, 2010)

WORLD

11 Impressions of The West Bank Joel Hanson (Aug 9, 2010)
Israel divestment movement surges in WA OlympiaBDS and TESCdivest, cartoon by George Jartos (Aug 9, 2010)

MEDICINE

How Community Organizing Saved Washington Basic Health Sisters organized for survival Cee Fisher, cartoon by John Jonik (Aug 9, 2010)

ENVIRONMENT

Still More Cartoonists Look at the Oil Spill art by George Jartos, David Logan, and Dan McConnell (Aug 9, 2010)

POLITICS

What Color Is Your -Ism? American reactions to "socialism" and "capitalism" are changing; too bad we don't have either Doug Collins, cartoons by John Ambrosavage (June 5, 2010)

ELECTIONS

Third-Party Candidates Face Long Odds Americans want a change, but change is rarely elected in WA or elsewhere National Institute on Money in State Politics (June 1, 2010)

ENERGY

Cutting the Cost of Cooling Creative conservation for air conditioning and refrigeration Martin Nix (June 1, 2010)

WORKPLACE

Teenage Microsoft Sweatshop 15-hour shifts under poor conditions at Chinese factory from the National Labor Committee (May 16, 2010)

IMMIGRATION

Why US Immigration Policy Needs Tweaking Bill Costello, cartoon by David Logan (May 16, 2010)
Arizona Immigration Brouhaha Various opinions from near and far, cartoons by Logan and McConnell (May 2, 2010)

TRANSPORTATION

The Coming Microcar Revolution Martin Nix (May 16, 2010)

ECONOMY

What the Doomsayers Haven't Been Telling You About Greece Neocons use Europe as a punching bag Steven Hill (May 13, 2010)

POETRY

A Poetic Look at Tacoma Glass Art Museum; a limer-ICK Gerald McBreen (Mar 28, 2010)
Fall Is For Falling Out Of Love, etc. three poems Bob Markey (Mar 29, 2010)

BUSINESS

Who Rules America? Corporate conglomeration is leading to neofeudalism Don Monkerud, cartoon by John Jonik (Mar 27, 2010)

EDUCATION

South Korean Teachers Reach for the SKY Class size doesn't matter as much as teacher quality Bill Costello (Mar 27, 2010)

HEALTH

California Dental Association Says No Fluoridated Water for Infants fluorosis is affecting most children from NYSCOF, art by David Dees (Mar 27, 2010)

CULTURE

Delete the Meat One might become a vegetarian account by John F. Baker, poem by Steve Hood, and cartoon by John Jonik (Feb 22, 2010)
Anvils: An Appreciation essay and photos by Robert Pavlik (Jan 24, 2010)

HISTORY

History of International Women's Day The first celebration was a century ago this year Megan Cornish (Feb 21, 2010)

MILITARY

Why I Do It Resisting Trident for Love and Life Lynne Greenwald (Feb 20, 2010)

TRUTH

Architects and Engineers Ask for New Look at 9/11 Doug Collins (Feb 20, 2010)

MEDIA

Is Olympic Coverage Sexist? Media coverage rarely gives women equal treatment Univ. of Alberta (Jan 24, 2010)

RIGHT BRAIN

Why I Don't Come at Christmas Anymore not-so-jolly Saint Nick (Dec 18, 2009) Santa Gets Political art by Ambrosavage, Lande, and Dees (Dec 17, 2009)

WORKPLACE

No DIME for the Dems WA Labor Council leadership accepts activist platform for economic recovery. Will they follow through? Steve Hoffman (Nov 6, 2009)

RIGHTS

Puyallup Bans Door-to-door Religious Speech ACLU of WA (Oct 16, 2009)

LETTERS

Single-Payer Health; Toilet-Paper Tax READER MAIL with cartoons by Jonik and McConnell (Oct 16, 2009)

SUBSTANCES

FDA Cigarette Regulation is Bad News John Jonik (posted Aug 28, 2009)
A Dose of Reality: Drug Legalization Megan Cornish (posted Aug 28, 2009)

SPORTS

A People's History of Sports BOOK REVIEW Doreen McGrath (posted July 24, 2009)

CLIMATE

Cashing In On Earth's Cycles: Part 3 Alan Cheetham & Richard Kirby (posted July 24, 2009)
Obama: How Serious About Climate Change? Doug Collins (posted July 24, 2009)

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posted Nov. 6, 2009

cartoon by John Jonik

A Close Look at the 'Corporate Option'

Ten reasons why mandatory private health insurance is an awful idea

By John Jonik

1) Private insurers are businesses that must grow. This guarantees endless cuts in service, and endless hikes in costs to the public. These companies have both motive and duty to provide as little service as possible at the highest price possible. This is an adversarial situation with the public.

2) A significant chunk of customers’ health care money goes to corporations that give contributions to political candidates that customers may not care to support. These corporations also spend customer money by lobbying for legislation that favors the corporations’ own interests. Mandatory purchase of private insurance would have our government---our sworn and paid representatives---compelling citizens to provide revenues to candidates preferred by private insurers. There is no public interest health-related justification for mandating this part of an insurance policy.

3) A large percent of the cost of a policy goes to non-health-related things such as advertising, CEO bonuses, corporate jets, business conventions, and corporate headquarters upkeep. No health-related justification exists for mandating that citizens pay for that along with the actual health benefits.

4) For-profit insurers, using revenue collected from customers, invest in all sorts of private businesses, many being among the most health-damaging ones, including cigarette manufacturing, pesticides (including many pesticides used in tobacco products), dioxin-producing chlorine industries, genetically engineered crops, and so forth. This creates a conflict of interest in that insurers would be inclined to ignore or play down harms caused by their investment properties. This conflict motivates insurers to blame, as a distraction and PR tactic, every non-industrial thing they can think of for causing diseases.

5) For-profit insurers invest heavily in environmentally destructive industries such as mountaintop removal coal mining, oil, clear-cut logging, and factory fishing. These insurers also invest in sweatshop operations, military contractors, and union-busting firms. Furthermore, these insurers may invest in businesses that compete with a customer’s own livelihood or in businesses which a customer may disapprove of for a variety of moral or religious reasons. A mandate to purchase services from such an insurer would be a compulsion on people to violate their own beliefs or undermine their own well-being.

6) For-profits invest in pharmaceuticals, thus creating a conflict of interest in that such an insurer would use its power to favor drugs from its own investment holdings over others that may be cheaper, more effective, or safer. This conflict would also prompt an insurer to be lax in checking, or warning about, insufficiently tested or harmful drugs. This syndrome virtually guarantees that an insurer would oppose use of natural, un-patented remedies.

7) Mandates to purchase private health insurance are notably different from mandates on car owners to buy auto insurance. One may opt out of that compulsion by simply not driving. But, with health care, those in certain income brackets where “having” insurance is to be mandated will have no option except unacceptable ones---to a) leave the country, b) deplete assets to avoid the obligation, or c) die.

8) Mandates force people to speak to private insurers, an apparent violation of the Fifth Amendment---especially regarding the above-noted parts of the program that have no justification on health care grounds.

9) A person in the income level that will be compelled to purchase private insurance services will be paying private insurers twice: once directly, and a second time via their taxes to subsidize private insurance for low income people. Government will not just pay doctors and hospitals---it will give our tax money to private insurers to do that, at undoubtedly a great cost.

10) When the government subsidizes private insurance for low income people, much of that money will still go to the non-health-related things---including the investments in god-knows-what, and including big campaign contributions to political candidates.