Is Credit Bad For Your Health?

Two more things today, handled only briefly. The first will be health care in terms of what the Democrats should do to combat the barrage of flaming arrows unsheathed upon this very important campaign promise/legislative juggernaut. The second will be a brief strategy to combat supposed Credit card company fees and penalties to you, brave consumer.

1.
This is the way to come at socialized medicine.

It'll be expensive, but the whole point of pooling resources is so that no one as a United States citizen should ever have to suspend their life and liberty because of the costs they incur just trying to be healthy. That's the nexus. Cancer and Alzheimer's are the kinds of infirmity that take happy retiree out of his home and dump him out the the street. It is a desperate condition, but handling these seriously debilitating diseases will be good for all of us and virtually impossible to vote against. Still, until the streams of revenue can be located, the scope should not only be legislated as limited in scope but also temporary. The implementation of further Heathcare rights will be continued on the basis of concurrent success.

The next part of the health care argument is more callous. We already spend upwards of $2 trillion credit (the opposite of cash money) on Medicare and Medicaid, a number that will only increase for the next 15-25 years as more of those entering their golden years are living longer. Not to mention that in about 35 years, all of us, their kids, will be those golden year patients. I don't know what I will be like when I am that age. Right now I can hardly think about wanting to continue on living if my faculties were significantly diminished. I cannot really understand wanting my spouse to prolong life if she were sick or not present. I do not believe there is value in life inherent to it living and breathing. I believe there is no value in life unless you actively can procure it for more than just yourself. I have not yet hit 30, however, so my mind might change. I'm still as cocksure and manipulative as I've ever been, so I do not expect my views to living will change a great deal. It's funny the things that DON'T change.

The cost of health care will surely not be going down from the sheer number of patients. When insurance companies and hospitals were given the free reigns of the corporate bull, they decided to save or trample patients based on how their outlook for the fiscal year. They lost their ability to go unregulated. Instead of providing good care, they provided more care. They award hospitals that make the extra tests and keep a good stable of lawyers to keep their lawsuits from catching wind. Often, they award patients with connections to medical boards through the labyrinth of personal wealth and big business instead of providing care on any kind of moral basis. First do no harm? Since when did that include Above all, Do nothing that costs too much.

No one is saying that universal health care will be all or nothing. Obama is not trying to get new legislation whizzed through Congress so that the junkie homeless person can go into the Emergency room if it's too cold outside. He is not trying pass laws into motion that will allow pregnant teens to get medical attention unabashed. They are aware of frequent flyers and have a plank in there about monitoring repetitive patients. Personally, I am with the idea of American justice where you can make practically any mistake there is if you're willing to pay for it. They might sway a few Republican Congress members over to their side if they introduced certain plank that incurred extra charges to the guaranteed significant Americans that used a free health care system to the point of abuse. The single payer system is good even if that means we all pay a fee that is a percentage of our monthly wage. That is, the single payer that we all put money into will be part of but in addition to the Medicare deductions each paycheck. No, that is not disincentive to earn more. It just means that you are paying the same amount everyone else is for your health, some people just have more or less money than you do.

This is also separate from Federal funding that is being put into the very good idea of electronic records. You may always know what's going on with your health, but if doctors can access real time empirical data on how patients with certain illnesses are being treated and how they are getting better, well that is good for patient and doctor.

Whatever happens, universal healthcare is sure to keep legislators busy for decades.

It is also incredibly smart for the President to make this Congress' bill. I think it is very likely that a foundation-laying bill will be hammered out by the end of the summer, and that most likely, we will see Obama signing a Health Care Rights bill by the end of November. Of course it's going to toss back and forth between House and Senate a couple times, but bi-partisan should mean more than 1 Senator and 3 Reps from the other side. The biggest problem will be reconciling a private health insurance option with the simultaneous payments into Medicare and whatever trust is set up for pay for the Health Care Rights provisions. The superficial answer is that while you will have the option to purchase personal health care, the incentive to do so will be similar to those of Canadian citizens. They purchase health care if they want to have access to highly desirable doctors and facilities. Or if they happen to be traveling in a country without universal health care. Most likely patients paying for premium care will be able to pay both--- and get good use from both. It will be interesting to see what 'networks' arise in response to "private health insurance" allocations in a new bill.


2.
The second thing is the credit card bill of rights. There are things the President can and cannot do. Barack Obama could sign the bill into law. He couldn't tell credit card companies to chill the fuck out with all the credit cards they issue. He cannot tell them not to charge you once they try to make up black they're losing. Listen up, people. The credit card companies stocks are going to go down. The drops will come really quickly in about 2 months, most likely because credit card companies find it inconceivable that they've been operating above their means. The country needs to have a booming industry, but a lot of the troubles that happened in this country came from rampant spending that isn't getting paid back. If the average credit card debt is $10K credit (the opposite of cash money), multiply that time 150 million people. THAT'S 1.5 TRILLION dollars. It's a wonder and an act of blind faith that those companies are not dirt nap cheap.

As consumers, pay off your credit cards. Use debits for dinners and vacations and such. If you want to make your credit score better, use the 12 month no interest for store credit cards that will undoubtedly pervade the consumer market and pay those off within that year. Get new ones from a new store. The number you have is less important than the amount you owe on them altogether. Use notebooks or some app like Quickbooks to track your spending and payments month to month. I prefer notebooks because I just don't trust that information to the Cloud.

Here's the thing. Start paying down your credit cards now. As soon and as often as you get fees or rate increases you believe are unfair to you, the good credit card holder, let them know that you will not be continuing with their company as soon as the bill is paid. Find out who the person's on the phone boss is and short letter to them telling them that they should really consider how to deal with their parent companies' irresponsible, bubble growth. They will listen. They have to now.