SOUTH NEWFANE — With the battle over the Affordable Care Act in the news, I have been troubled by the vigor with which we are trying to save it.
Although the ACA could be seen as a breakthrough in “health care” for the United States, I see it as bolstering the insurance game we're already playing.
The ACA guarantees a profit for the insurance industry. We are forced to pay a penalty if we don't sign up. We are told that we are responsible, not the insurance industry, for making insurance affordable.
It seems clear that the insurance industry is not sustainable if, in order to make healthy profits, insurance companies still contest coverage and pay less and less of the costs.
We fight for this - this privilege to be jerked around by our insurance providers, telling us what tests and procedures they will cover and what doctors we can see?
This is not health care! This is regulating access to health care, as well as defining and limiting health care to a very narrow spectrum of practices.
These practices fit well with the business plans of Big Pharma, manufacturers of medical devices and the allopathic medical establishment, but they limit our options for successful health care.
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So what promotes health? The answer might vary among different people but, in general, it's access to healthy food and social services, enjoyable physical exercise, clean air and water, housing, education, dental work, child care, and medical services.
I have not had much success caring for my health issues with western medical doctors. However, I have had great luck with my health issues using methods such as acupuncture, qi gong, or the Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais Method.
Insurance does not cover most of the methods that I use to take care of my health. As a self-employed person, if I signed up for insurance, I would no longer be able to afford my current health care.
So I either have to take care of my health, or I have to give someone that money so that if I get in an accident or get cancer I have some access to care. Even though the ACA may subsidize my premiums, I'm not willing to use my tax dollars to pad insurance profit margins.
On top of limiting access to many health-care providers, our government is now choosing to deregulate a host of polluting industries, which directly hurts our health.
If our government is not willing to protect its citizens from pollution by regulation, why should it expect us to take its vision of health care seriously?
Oh, and what about mental health?
Years of war have affected veterans and their families. People have experienced the loss of jobs, the cycle of poverty, the hunting of people of color, the terrorizing of immigrants, the harassment of women and the LGBTQ community. Students are unable to pay their college loans while the loan industry rakes it in. We deal with the consequences of the un-funding of public education.
All these circumstances increase the stresses contributing to suicides on the rise, the opioid crisis, and mass shootings.
Gee, I wonder why our children have so little hope for a future?
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The U.S. Congress enjoys the very same single-payer health care that they deny us while forcing the rest of us to subsidize the insurance industry through the ACA.
Many people have gotten health care through the ACA who would not have otherwise, and that has its benefits, but the legislation had to be heavily weighed to the insurance industry's side. And two years after its implementation, the insurance industry is already saying that prices will have to go up. One friend's insurance has a $12,000 deductible. How does this promote health?
Multiple insurance policies add undeniable costs - both financial and in the form of doctors' time - and none of these costs provide any health benefit.
Why in a democracy should I be forced to help the insurance industry continue to make large profits? I would be willing to pay significantly higher taxes for a single-payer system, where the citizens and the providers would directly benefit.
For me, our government's current approach is insincere, if not cynical, in terms of actually providing health care. I resent being told that I need to buy insurance that jeopardizes my ability to take care of my health, but then the same government that mandates this purchase won't do enough to assure I have clean air and water, a healthy food system, or even to be protected from fraudulently losing my home.
Admitting its weaknesses is a first step to making the ACA better. But instead of fighting tooth and nail to save the law, why not see it as a starting point for a real conversation about how to provide actual health care to people in the United States?