As a lifelong 'healthcare provider" or employee of hospitals or mental health agencies public or private, I feel like I know just a little bit about the subject of "healthcare" and "government".
See, I worked at a mental health center as part of a county government for 8 years, once upon a time (before Team Bush rolled into town).
I hear all the kvetching and handwringing over "government-run healthcare' coming particularly from the "We hate Big Government" tribes on the fringe of organized society.
There are 2 glaring issue absent from all the ranting and raving and countr-argumentation going on and those are on the flip.
- Healthcare means JOBS.
Sure funding healthcare will help the 45-50 million Americans currently without medical coverage or proper access to healthcare. But thre IS a consequence to funding healthcare for so many people: JOBS will be created.
Jobs. One of those really important things we are searching for in our 'economic recovery'. Jobs for all manner of skillsets.
I was laid off from the county in June of 2002. Me and 30-some other people in what was a third wave of layoffs. The out-patient mental health program was simply dismantled. A hundred people were cast into the unemployment ranks.
Shortly after that, when I had lots of free time to just chill out here on my property, I came across a story in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution where the lawmakers had elected to close down the Children's Unit and Georgia Regional Hospital at Panthersville. This unit ran on about $960,000 a year, employed 30 or 40 people and would provide a safe place for up to 30 severely and acutely disturbed children. They just shut it down. They gave the $960,000 to some Georgia town to buy Xmas lights and a statue of a mule. Providing proper care for those children became more difficult overnight and many people got laid off.
So the reverse would likely be true: if we proper fund and fix American healthcare, hundreds of thousands of jobs will necessarily be created. SOMEBODY will have to look after the 40 million currently uninsured.
- Government CAN work.
This has been the most ridiculous part of the "Government can't work" crowd. The idea that once I work for the government I will not know anything, I won't work, or I'll screw everything up because somehow Big Government just cannot work.
That's horseshit.
I worked HARD for the time I was at the county. The program in which I worked was an example of how children's programs can run if funded and staffed properly. I tried to sneak work home so I could get more done. Late in the game I remember having a terse meeting with the joke of a center director we had at the time - pounding my fist on the table demanding to be allowed to work MORE.
This is an argument I have not heard many people ever make: That government is run by people and people can be expected to work. I was expected to work. I was expected to excel at what I was doing. I had to sign my name to things. I got audited. And audited. And audited. There was no way I could have been slack or incompetent and lasted there.
it is wholly dishonest to simply suggest that just because "government" gets involved in your healthcare things will go haywire. Because qualified people will have to be providing these services.
Is government perfect? No. Why should it be? It's run by people. It should be expected to excel, which is arguably better and more realistic than being "perfect".
I have seen the face of privatized mental health, and with few exceptions, it has been an exercise in ENCOURAGING fraud and incompetence. So much so I will have to write a separate piece about this. At the county, we had ethics and honesty pounded into our heads. Once we were laid off and had to start working for the 10000 little fly-by-night agencies that sprang up, I learned a LOT about Medicaid fraud. Again, this would be a separate article altogether
So, Government is people and government healthcare would be provided by qualified and competent people - who can be expected to actually work - and would provide jobs for these people who are expected to work.
Bottom Line: Healthcare creates jobs.
And how convenient! America needs both.