Medically-Displaced Persons

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. (Mark Twain?)

Medically-Displaced Persons
by arendt

.. "The problem of statelessness became prominent after World War 1.
.. During the war, the principal European states found it necessary to
.. amend their laws of nationality so as to take power to cancel
.. naturalization. The class of stateless persons created through
.. revocation of naturalization was very small; they established, however,
.. an easy precedent so that, in the interwar period, naturalized
.. citizens were, as a rule, the first section of a population that became
.. stateless. Mass cancellation of naturalizations...usually preceded
.. denationalization of citizens-by-birth in similar categories..."(e.g.,
.. Jews)

.. "No paradox of contemporary politics is filled with a more poignant
.. irony than the discrepancy between the efforts of well-meaning
.. idealists, who stubbornly insist on regarding as 'inalienable' those
.. human rights, which are enjoyed only by citizens of the most
.. prosperous and civilized countries, and the situation of the rightless
.. themselves. Their situation has deteriorated just as stubbornly,
.. until the internment camp...has become the routine solution for
.. the problem of domicile of the 'displaced persons'."

.... Hannah Arendt
.... "The Origins of Totalitarianism"
.... Chapter 9: The Decline of the Nation-State and The End of the Rights of Man


Living in occupied territory is so fundamentally alien to the American
experience that it has taken me almost ten years to figure out why
the HMO-run medical system we suffer under is such an affront to
our heritage. The rankling fact is that the medical infrastructure of
America, representing between 12% and 15% of our economy, is no
longer under democratic control; but, rather, it has become a medical
police state.

Just as in a police state, there is no freedom of movement. To enter and
leave certain areas and obtain certain rationed services you must present valid
documentation like a passport or, in our case, an insurance card. This card
is issued by some HMO or another, after you have proved to them that you
are employed and that you are not too big a health risk (i.e., loyal and fit).

And, just as in a police state, this vital identity document can be confiscated
or revoked at any time for any reason, and you will be forced to fight to get
it back.

Just as in a police state, you have no recourse to the law in case of criminal
or extortionate behavior by the police. (Remember, to this day, you are
not allowed to sue an HMO.)

Just as in a police state, your papers are constantly demanded by some
faceless, ignorant, just-following-orders, 18-year old draftee. Meanwhile,
you have about as much chance of talking to an HMO executive as a human
rights protester had to talk to General Rios Montt - the Guatamalan genocidist.

Just as in a police state, the (medical) facts, your life and limb, and the
well-being of the community take a back seat to the goals of the (corporate)
state. Any attempt to assert common sense, much less your so-called
rights will put you on their blacklist (enforced anonymously, since HMOs
have privacy rights while you have none when it comes to your medical
history).

----

What we are seeing here is a new form of creeping totalitarian takeover.
You don't take over the whole country all at once, you take it over one key
industry at a time. You extinguish peoples' rights by making whatever specious,
self-serving argument can be sold in a particular business area, all the time
saying with a straight face "but we still live in a democracy, this is just about
the efficiency of one business".

Today, between 30 and 40 million Americans have no health insurance.
These people are "beyond the law" when it comes to medical care. They
have no recourse except to turn to emergency rooms when minor problems
become acute due to lack of care. But, flooded with these "medically displaced
persons", the emergency room system has been overloaded and broken.
Ambulances drive from hospital to hospital, like modern day Ships of Fools,
trying to get these HMO-less people into care.


.. "This kind of factual propaganda worked...the incredible plight of an ever-
.. growing group of innocent people was like a practical demonstration of
.. the totalitarian movements' cynical claims that no such thing as inalienable
.. human rights existed and that the affirmations of the democracies to the
.. contrary were mere prejudice, hypocrisy, and cowardice in the face of the
.. cruel majesty of the new world. The very phrase "human rights" became...
.. the evidence of hopeless idealism or fumbling feeble-minded hypocrisy."

-Ibid

(I love how Ms. Arendt is still current - "the cruel majesty of the new world".)

The uninsured are increasingly unemployed and homeless. They wind up living
in dangerous neighborhoods, in automobiles or on the street. So, in one of the miracles of the marketplace, you have MDPs "voluntarily" checking themselves
into our state-of-the-art internment camps, a.k.a. ghettos.

The right wing fights hard to deny medical coverage to illegal immigrants and
other "undesirables", like women who want birth control. There is potent working-
class propaganda appeal in scapegoating aliens in our midst, not to mention
making sure their lives are even more miserable so as to conform to the
stereotype of desperate, unhealthy, but lazy people.

At the same time, the middle class must fear that the same upward ratchet
of "loss of medical citizenship" will be applied to them any day now. So,
as in the interwar years, fear of immanent ouster leads to intense loyalty to the
police state and to rabid demonization of those already designated as victims.

----

What is absolutely insane about upholding the HMO police state in America
is that it simply does not work. We spend twice as much of our GDP on
healthcare as those limp-wristed, pate-gobbling Europeans, but we get
worse health outcomes. As Al Sharpton points out, you could pay for immense
amounts of new healthcare if you simply eliminated the 25% overhead
of the HMO police state.

HMOs have already put charity-based healthcare out of business. Most of
those charity hospitals were run by religiously minded folks. Where are
the Christians-in-name-only (CHINOs) on this one?

HMOs have hammered doctors salaries so hard that medical school applications
have dropped, and experienced doctors are looking for the exits. Nursing is in
freefall. Psychological services have been reduced to six visits.

The HMOs have taken an industry of local, small providers (doctors, nurses,
laboratories, convalescent homes, etc.) and turned it into a soulless,
centrally-commanded, nationwide machine - a "care" machine that cynically
"nuisance shifts" patients and "accidentally" loses doctors' bills. They
are classic economic "middlemen". They add no value, but they take
almost all of the profits. While business gurus argue for "reducing hierarchies",
HMO paper-pushers proliferate. Where are all the entreprenuers-in-name-only
(EINOs) on this one? Probably counting their WalMart stock dividends.

Only delusional corporatchiks (corporate apparatchiks) could spout the
party line about the success of the HMOs. HMOs are the bureaucracy from
hell. They go out of their way not to deliver the service they are supposedly
providing. They antagonize and steal from both their customers (patients)
and their suppliers (doctors). They have gutted the infrastructure that
sustains them. But, somehow, all those wingnuts who want to dismantle
the government bureaucracy have no problem replacing it with this
unaccountable horror.

And waiting in the wings, they have the private pension police state. They
demand privatization, in spite of the 1% overhead of Social Security and
the Wall Street meltdown. They want to force people into the Wall Street
casino where "the house" rakes off 10% of their income. These people are
clinically insane; but since they control the healthcare system, that diagnosis
will never be certified.

I hope that whoever the Democratic nominee is, he beats the living hell
out of the GOP for their defense of the HMO Medical Police State and
offers "full citizenship" to our 30 million medically displaced persons.
Its time we joined the civilized world.

n/t

didn't want to :puke: all over my computer.

Besides, I GOTTA EAT RIGHT AND TAKE CARE OF MY HEALTH, SO I don't want that meal wasted by :puke:
because
I HAVE NO HEALTH CARE!!

I can understand that you want to take care of your mental
health by avoiding the unpleasant feelings of powerlessness.

But, OTOH, don't you have the freedom of "nothing left to
lose"?

I certainly am not criticizing you, but I am interested. Do you
advocate in any way for health care reform? Or is that down
your priority list?

arendt

...the only one who has pledged to 'naturalise' everyone (very nice metaphor, that).

My tale is like a nightmare, but one you do wake up from, eventually and end up ADVOCATING FOR HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE.

My church closed, with 25% unemployment here they couldn't even afford the utilities, so I tried to COBRA my health insurance with the "new" law. It turns out that non-profits, like churches, aren't covered by the new law. They only have to provide the
COBRA coverage for the months( or not at all) authorized by the laws OF THE STATE in which the policy was issued. 6TH MONTHS INSTEAD OF 18 MONTHS.

So I settled down to unemployment(no unemployment insurance,of course) and taking care of my husband who had PARKINSON"S. The stress was so great that my blood pressure went over 220, I had to be hospitalized, my husband had to be put in a nursing home because there was no one to take care of him(I called home health but they wouldn't come, even private pay.)So I owed $250 deductible, 20% of the hospital bill,20% of each doctor bill and $135 per day for the nursing home for John for the 5 days I was in the hospital.(Medicare wouldn't cover it because HE wasn't sick, just needed total care.)THEN, to add insult to injury, the HMO wouldn't pay for my last day in the hospital because my insurance expired(first excuse) and it wasn't medically necessary (second excuse).My doctor tried to change their mind, but they wouldn't budge.

Then I was offered private medical insurance,same company, with no medical exemptions. Almost $5000 PER QUARTER for $500 deductible & 85% coverage, limited drug benefits. I took $2000 A QUARTER hospitalization only coverage, paid it for 3 quarters, then dropped it. Finally paid off all doctors, hospital, etc last month by time payments.

Now I have NO insurance.You better believe that I am taking care of my health!! Those outrageous rates at the highest levels, for a person who had about 2 doctor visits per year, one of which was for mammogram and pap smear,,,,IT'S UNCONSCIONABLE...

GO KUCINICH, THE ONLY ONE WITH A REASONABLE HEALTH PLAN that takes the OUTRAGEOUS PROFIT out of health care, and puts it toward HEALTH!!

It would have been bad enough as a nightmare, but to have to actually survive it.... I'm glad you made it through. Will your denomination offer you another living at some point, do you think?


I look at Dean's plan, which is touted to only cost $88G. Then the bubble bursts: he's talking about $88G more, not 88G toto, and it would still leave 10M people without insurance. People like you and me, probably. How can anyone in good conscience support that?

Even DK's plan is painfully conservative in its implementation. But it's miles in front of any other for universality and cost.

I find it interesting that so many candidates--even DK--focus on kids. That's a bit grandstand-y on one level, since kids are the healthiest segment of the population and thus the ones who need coverage least (though the few who do need it really need it, even if usually it can't actually help them much). I suppose it makes sense on another level, since we invest so much emotion in kids, but the people who really need coverage are more often parents than children.

If we get pro-universal health care candidates in Congress and the White House, after this fascist regime falls, I think we need to push for national health care no matter how much the for profit health care industry tries to derail any progress like they did Hillary's plan. As a matter of fact I am all for an ammendment to the constitution that states that access to timely health care is a human right, like our European neighbors have in their constitutions. This way the next Repuke administration will have a hard time trying to undo it.

I think its clear by now that the GOP have made a mockery
of all three branches of government, and now they are wrecking
the Constitution with their Ten Commandments/faith based BS.

Lets face it, they broke our system; and throwing one set of
corporate-sponsored bums out won't fix the system.

Yes, I'm all for rights, and health care as a right. But you have
to have a functioning democracy. I had hoped that people
would pick up the idea of an HMO police state and apply it
to other areas of corporate wrecking of our democracy; and
eventually generalize it to the unpalatable fact that we live
in a very loose, but effective police state.

If you are interested, I can recommend "redeye"'s site at

http://www.voy.com/101333/

where there is ongoing discussion of new and improved
Constitutions.

arendt

I know America as we once knew it has been wrecked. We do need to redo democracy and yes I could see a new constitution being written for our post nuclear bomb world.

n/t

Make us all hostages to our jobs. Your boss can literally threaten your life since you depend on employment for medical care.

The group rates gouge the individual who needs to buy individual coverage or small businesses that are not fortunate enough to be in a large "Risk Pool".

When I had a heart problem two years ago, we were told it would be covered. One year later, we found we owed the hospital ALONE 60,000 dollars. Employer is nowhere to be found, assets well hidden.

We had to declare bankruptcy.

We need a single payer system ASAP. No one should have to go through what we did, and I still consider us FORTUNATE; at least I did get the surgery.

Basically, the HMO twisted the hospital's arm to GIVE
BACK the money that the HMO had already paid. The HMO
had the leverage to do this because they bundled my
friend's transaction into a large bunch of stuff that
they used to "negotiate" with the hospital.

Once the hospital "gave back" my friend's payment, they
turned around and billed my friend. It took him months
to get the hospital to eat the cost.

The HMOs are truly the UNDEAD. No matter that you think
you are done with them, they will keep trying to eat you
alive.

arendt

loved by no one -- not patients or doctors. I'm currently unable to get a medication that my doctor says I need because the HMO holding me captive thinks it's "experimental," never mind that it's advertised on television ("Ask your doctor for ______.") They won't pay for any of the newer drugs in this category, only an older, less effective one. Never mind that my doctor has written to them and explained that the older drugs have done very little for me and that I was doing better on the new drug (before my previous HMO was terminated and I was transferred to this more restrictive plan.) $125 is a lot to shell out for a month's supply of the new drug so I take the older drug that the HMO will pay for and don't feel as well as I did. At least it's not a drug for blood pressure or heart, merely a drug to calm my stomach, which is bothered by other medications that I must take for a chronic disease. So my stomach hurts more and sometimes I have to sleep sitting up in a chair because of stomach pain but that's life in the medical police state. Your money or your health -- or neither.

We need universal health care in the US, and that's a big part of why I'm voting for Dennis Kucinich.

acting above and beyond the law! Pure and simple!

The Mafia must be green with envy at the criminal successes of mangled care!

I think you said (farther down the thread) that you wish we would all run with the ideas, and develop them wrt other areas of our national malaise. But I for one am still digesting your message. Give us some time, and post a follow-up with a link back here. Or, just kick it again in a few days! This one really does need to be widely read.

Re the health system, Physicians for a National Health Program (or something close to that) has 9,000 doctors who have joined, and their recent press conference got ZERO media coverage (except c-span--where I caught it). They argue that the system is so broken, it needs to be totally trashed and then set up something similar to medicare for the whole population. Really impressive people, including several former Surgeons General. It's worth cruising over to their website--and they have lots of ideas for organizing and getting the message out for anyone inspired to get with the program....

www.pnhp.org/

One of my doctors (I have at last count, 6) is a member and I have discussed the issue several times with her.

One of the things she is most concerned about is that she (an oncology surgeon; no worries, I just have lumpy breasts so she keeps a close eye on me) can't do her job to HER satisfaction; she is so stifled by the HMOs.

www.pnhp.org is the correct link.

> Give us some time, and post a follow-up...

My practice is to respond to as many posts to my
threads as I can. That tends to keep it from falling
too far down the list.

---

> you wish we would all run with the ideas, and develop
> them wrt other areas of our national malaise.

Here are a few other police states:

1) The Mastercard/Visa credit card police state
....They cash any check they get, even if not made to them
....They blacklist any merchant who offers a discount for cash

2) The "frequent user" shopping discount police state
....The basic method for turning local business into corporate space
....Jack up the price unless you fork over your personal info
....Purchase info HAS been used against card holder in court

Notice that these both involve "ID cards". This kind of
mutating normal, everyday purchasing into an immortal
transaction of corporate record has to have limits put
on it. Otherwise it is nothing but extortion.

arendt

You have thought this issue through and articulated it in a clear and exemplary manner. :toast: With me, you're preaching to the choir. ;-)
It is my fervent prayer that others carefully consider the important information you have presented here, sooooooo... :kick:

That one's going into my DU vocabulary right away!!

And, in the DU Glossary, it comes right after "Chimp"... :-)

:kick: