It saddens me to see how poorly-framed the current health care debate is. I have my own suggestions for catch-phrases, but ultimately, I think we need to change the misconception that it is the unemployed who are suffering.
The health insurance industry is slaughtering the backbone of the American economy. The self employed, small businesses and the working poor. One person dies every fifteen minutes, but that is far from the entire story.
It boggles. I talk with any bank, even when I am having difficulty with payments, I get red-carpet treatment compared to my more secure time as an employee. I am not sure if there is any segment of American society, save perhaps for health insurers themselves, that actively discriminates against the self employed. They are doing their damnedest to destroy the American economy, and it's working.
Every hour I spend doubled over in agony is an hour I can't perform. I am far from alone in this, but the only way that I can receive treatment, I am told, is to make nothing for six months to two years. In the mean time, my customers would like me to do things for them...
In another country, getting treatment would be $1,500 or less. In America, it's $15,000. Either way, if I had gotten treatment when I was first diagnosed, the money would have been a moot point. But because of the war on our economic foundations, I am a less productive person - and may never get that treatment without a public option.
In simple game theory terms, the health insurance industry is given the incentive to restrict care as much as possible. In their effort to do this, they employ people whose sole purpose, in economic terms, is to tie up doctors and patients, delaying treatment and reducing effectiveness.
Industrially speaking, the health insurance industry does nothing but hurt industry. They are effectively waging war on America, and the result has been lives lost and an economy destroyed. This effect is more direct than hedge fund scams - a productive person, with talent, can still produce something after being laid off.
A person who is rendered nonproductive is simply that.
This is not just about morals. The health insurance lobby is waging war against the self-employed. They are waging war against small business. They are waging war on the working poor. The economic damage they do is very real.
Some people will understand it better if presented that way. This is not just about what is morally correct. Even the rich lose if the health insurance lobby wins.