Friday, January 10, 2020

What's Wrong with the Healthcare System? 
An Interview with Wolf Larsen
from the book Capitalism Sucks


Question: So what's wrong with the healthcare system?
Answer: God, where do I start?  The biggest problem with the healthcare system is that it's all about money.  Health care for profit is a contradiction, healthcare for profit is an oxymoron.  Sure, a small number of elite people get excellent quality medical care because they have lots of money.  But the rest of us have to make do with rationed health care. 

Q.  What do you think of health insurance companies and HMOs?
A.  I think they're a bunch of Mafia.  The CEOs of these HMOs and health insurance companies are becoming billionaires by denying people health care.  The less medical care they deliver the more money insurance companies and HMOs make.

Q.  So what should be done about health insurance and HMOs?
A.  Get rid of them.  If you need an operation that should be between your doctor and you.  Some corporate bureaucrat shouldn't decide whether you get a lifesaving operation or not.  The bureaucrat is not concerned about your health.  All the corporate bureaucrat is concerned about is the insurance company's or the HMO's bottom line.  Your health care should be between you and your doctor.  Your healthcare should not involve corporate bureaucrats who look for excuses to deny you medical care.

Q.  So with what would you replace the health-insurance companies and HMOs?
A.  I would replace them all with quality medical care for all.  If you need to see a doctor you see a doctor.  If you need an operation you get an operation.  If you need to see a specialist you see a specialist.  Take all the bureaucrats out of the process.  Corporate bureaucrats shouldn't be able to decide whether you get a life-saving operation are not.

Q.  But isn't that socialism or communism?
A.  That's right!  That's what it is.  In order to have free quality medical care for all we're going to have to have socialism.  We're going to have to get rid of capitalism.  Because capitalism is all about denying people medical care so that the insurance companies and HMOs can make a handsome profit.

Q. Why should we give people free quality medical care?
A.  Because free quality medical care should be a basic human right.  Everyone who works should receive free quality medical care because they pay taxes.  Under capitalism you pay taxes to keep lots of people in jail, you pay taxes for endless wars, you pay taxes for a police state with two million people behind prison bars.  Instead of spending money on war and warehousing huge numbers of people behind prison bars for smoking marijuana we should provide everyone with free quality medical care.  There is another advantage of giving everyone free quality medical care.  Instead of having like a zillion bureaucrats for every doctor you have a lot more doctors. 

Q.  But if we provide everyone with free medical care there will be huge lines at the clinics and hospitals and there won't be enough medical care to go around – isn't that true?  And people will have to wait for months to see a specialist – isn't that true?
A.  We will need to train a lot more doctors, specialists, and nurses!  And going to medical school or nursing school should be free.  People should be accepted to medical school based on their abilities to become excellent doctors and not on their ability to pay tuition.  We need the best people to become doctors and nurses, regardless of whether they can pay for medical school or not.  And also we need to build hospitals, not close them.  Under capitalism they keep closing hospitals.  They close hospitals and build prisons.

Q.  Wouldn't providing free quality medical care for everyone be very expensive?
A.  Not really.  Because all the HMOs and insurance companies that are sucking money out of the medical system would be gone.  All the parasites would be out of the medical system.  There should only be bureaucrats to check the quality of medical care, as opposed to ten million bureaucrats deciding who gets medical care and who doesn't.  Right now you have an endless number of bureaucrats rationing medical care.  Fire most of the bureaucrats and train more doctors and nurses.  It's simple.  Less bureaucrats.  More doctors and nurses. 

Q.  I still think providing free medical care for everyone would be more expensive than the existing system – don't you think so?
A.  I doubt it.  But we also have to define our priorities.  Do we want to spend lots of money on war and warehousing huge numbers of people in prison for smoking marijuana or do we want to spend more money on health care, education, and things like that?  Under capitalism there's always war.  And the war budget is just devouring money – endless amounts of money.  The so-called war on drugs is also devouring huge amounts of money.  We need to get rid of capitalism, and replace it with a system where everyone gets free quality medical care.

Q.  But what do we do until we get rid of capitalism?
A.  We fight for free quality medical care for everyone.  The way we do this is we break with the Democrats and the Republicans and we form a workers party.  A workers party will fight for free quality medical care for everyone.  Working people are very powerful.  Working people don't realize all the power that they have.  Working people white and black and Latino, native born and immigrant, male and female, gay and straight, should all be united in fighting together for free medical care for everyone.  But we certainly won't get free medical care for all without fighting for it.

Q.  But some of the Democratic politicians are proposing universal health coverage.  Won't that solve the problem with our medical system?
A.  No it won't.  What the Democrats are proposing is universal health insurance.  All that means is more bureaucrats.  Many times the health insurance companies refuse to pay all of our medical bills.  Often health insurance companies deny medical procedures that people need.  Providing universal health insurance coverage is great for the insurance companies.  It will put more bureaucrats on the payroll, and that will be great for the CEOs of insurance companies.  What universal health insurance will not do is provide free quality medical care for everyone.  Universal health insurance will just bring more bureaucracy.  We need free quality medical care for all, not endless insurance bureaucracy.

Q.  But if we provide free quality medical care for everyone won't there be people abusing the system?
A.  I don't think so.  Nobody wants to go to the hospital.  Nobody wants an operation unless it's cosmetic.  Nobody wants to go to the dentist and have a drill stuck in their mouth.  This is one thing you don't need to worry about people abusing.  Now on the other hand if we decided to have a program giving out free beer that would be different.  (Laughs)

Q.  So cosmetic surgery wouldn't be covered under free quality medical care?
A.  Unless someone got into a disfiguring accident than no – cosmetic surgery would not be covered under free quality medical care for all.  If you're ugly and you want cosmetic surgery well that's your problem and you have to pay for it yourself.  (Laughs)  But if someone got into an accident and they were disfigured – particularly in the face – then I think free quality medical care should cover that.  If a child is born with a cosmetic disfigurement that would make life difficult for him – especially if the disfigurement was in the face – then I think free medical care should cover that.

Q.   But don't you think that capitalism delivers good quality medical care?
A.  Absolutely not.  There's waiting rooms filled with people waiting endless hours to see a doctor.  All over the world there is just endless people waiting in endless long lines to see a doctor.

Q.  All over the world?  You've experienced medical care in other countries?
A.  Yes I have.  Mostly in the Third World.  I had an operation done in a third world country because I couldn't afford to have it done in the US.  The operation didn't turn out very well.  Anyway, in Third World hospitals I've seen some pretty crazy things.  Unsanitary conditions.  Endless people waiting endless hours for medical care.  And that's in private hospitals and clinics.  In the public hospitals in both the United States and in Third World countries the waits are even longer.  There are many doctors all over the world that are very committed to their work.  But a lot of times all you get is just a little bit of the doctor's time after a long wait.  A doctor is in such a hurry to get to all the other patients waiting to see him that a lot of times the doctors don't take the time to tell you everything that you need to know.  This can have fatal consequences, or it least it may compromise your recovery from your medical problem.

Q.  But don't your experiences in Third World countries prove that we should keep the medical system the way it is?
A.  Quite the contrary is true.  Americans are flying to Third World countries to get medical procedures and operations because they can't afford to get medical care in their own country.  Often, the insurance company won't pay for an operation they need.  That's ridiculous!  You have the richest people in the world flying to America for their medical care, and you have Americans flying to Third World countries for their medical care because they can't afford medical care in their own country.  At any rate, medical care in America is not all that good for the vast majority of Americans.  It might be good for someone with lots of money.  But as I said before the rest of us are getting rationed medical care.  Let me take this time to move beyond America.  I think everyone on this planet who works deserves free quality medical care, and everyone who wants to work should have the right to a job.  So basically everyone in the world should have the right to free quality medical care. 

Q. But how are Third World countries going to afford that – free quality medical care for all their citizens?
A.  In some ways Third World countries have many similarities with United States.  Many Third World countries are spending lots of money on their militaries.  There's also lots of corruption in many Third World countries.  There's lots of money there that could be used for free quality medical care and for other things like education.  There are some Third World countries that are too poor to provide the people with free quality medical care for all.  After workers revolution occurs across the world it will be the responsibility of the first world socialist countries to aid the poorest of the Third World countries in providing free quality medical care for their citizens until they're able to afford to do it themselves.

Q.  In some countries in Western Europe with free health care don't they pay lots of taxes?
A.  Not all of the tax money in those countries is going to things like education and health care.  Those countries also have militaries.  They may not be spending as much as the United States on their militaries, but they're still spending on military.  It would be interesting to see where that tax money is going to.  Under socialism everyone will be contributing to the wealth of society because everyone will have the right to a job, and thus there will be less taxes and thus there will be plenty of money for free quality medical care for all without big taxes.  Capitalism is very wasteful of resources.  Get rid of capitalism and provide free quality medical care for all.

Q.  Don't public hospitals already provide medical care for the poor?
A.  I went to a public hospital in United States over and over again trying in vain to get medical care.  Many other people have had similar experiences with public hospitals.  Perhaps public hospitals will attend to you if you're dying.  However, what often happens is that poor people can't get the medical care that they need for health problems until those health problems become very serious.  Poor people often return again and again to some public hospital or public clinic trying to get treatment for a medical condition that's minor.  But since there's limited resources minor medical conditions often don't get treated and poor patients are turned away from those public hospitals and clinics without medical care.  As a result their minor medical conditions become worse and later that poor person is in the emergency room with a life-threatening condition and needs an operation right away.  This is bad for the medical system as a whole, and it actually increases the costs of medical care.  It also is bad for the poor people themselves.  And maybe I shouldn't call these people poor, because many of them have jobs, but they can't afford to pay their rent, the groceries, and the medical bills.  Medical care is just too expensive because the system is based on a profit system that's dysfunctional.  Public hospitals in Third World countries so far in my experience have been better than public hospitals in the United States – which is mind boggling.  They were better because you actually got medical care.  The US spends huge amounts of money on its war machine, so there's not much left over for healthcare. 



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