MR WRONG: Cost-benefit analysis
Indignity Vol. 4, No. 219
COLUMN DEP’T.
MR WRONG: Health Insurance Makes Everybody Feel Terrible
I FEEL VERY bad about this murder of a guy who worked for a health insurance company. While the Mr. Wrong column is a General Interest column, I think it would be an unusual and maybe even, for some readers of the Mr. Wrong column, an unwelcome topic, for a Mr. Wrong column, for me to discuss how the whole thing has made me sad.
We have a dead guy, murdered, and a guy who, we really don’t know what’s gonna happen, but whose life is never gonna be the same, and I have my own theories about the guy they locked up and stuff, and you know what, so does everybody else in the whole internet. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get away from hearing stuff from all sides of this topic, there’s people who are all “Hooray for the murder,” and say it’s a fuck-around-and-find-out blow struck, a direct action against greedball insurance companies that deny benefits to people who pay for benefits, because denying benefits helps the health insurance companies make billions of dollars, and the company that the murdered guy worked for is number one in fucking people over and taking their healthcare away from them, because a lot of people, when they get denied a benefit, don’t have the dough to pay for the medical help they thought they had a benefit for, so they don’t take care of their medical problem the way they would if they were paying for subsidized heath care and not commercial for-profit health insurance, which is how these companies make their money, by getting in between the people who need help and the place where they would get help, and providing their health insurance service, you know? So you have a problem, the health insurance won’t pay enough for you to take care of it, and either you go into hock for the rest of your life, or you pay for it by being unhealthy and sick, you pay for it with your body, your body suffers because you don’t have money, and if you die, you won't be around to appeal your denial of benefits.
So we have a dead guy, murdered, who paid the price for being in a company that makes more money when it doesn’t pay out for specific aspects of a person’s healthcare, they deny the claim for benefits. I mean, is it a pyramid scheme, does health insurance not really work? Is that why they don’t want to pay? Do these health insurance companies know that there's no way they can help people take care of their health if everybody needs the help that they pay for? Then how do you explain the billions of dollars they make? Is the business the most important part of this system, as opposed to helping heal people who are suffering?
Is there math that shows how if a health insurance company paid for more of its customers to get healthcare stuff done, it could make some money, as opposed to billions? Does that make any sense, to make sure a healthcare company can make sure people get healthcare? To ensure people get healthcare?
All I know, personally, is I get this pain in my eyes, because I earn my living sitting on my ass staring at a computer monitor all day, and my eye doctor told me that I can’t even tell, but my eyeballs get dry and pain me because I look at a computer all day, and regular eye drops are not helping, so he gave me a prescription for eye drops, and they worked, and like a lotta drugs, the first dose was free, and then before it was even time for me to re-up, I get a letter from the pharmacy saying I got denied coverage for my prescription because my eye doctor didn’t make a good enough case for why I need prescription eye drops, beyond, of course, writing me a goddamn prescription for prescription eye drops. So now I gotta appeal to get my eye drops, I have to get my eye doctor to write something about how I need the fucking prescription I got prescribed, for the stabbing pain in my eyeball, or I can just pay for the eye drops myself, and that’s how this shit works, that’s how they claw a few dollars back from my healthcare benefits. If I was broke, and I couldn’t pay for the eye drops, I would pay with my pain. It’s hard for me to not get emotional when they are fucking with my eyes, but I can’t even image what other people with way more serious problems are dealing with, and dealing with it while they are sick. I don’t understand any of this stuff, I don’t understand single-payer whatever, other than thinking, “Hey, isn’t this better, more efficient, moneywise?” I don’t understand the Affordable Care Act, other than seeing that lotsa people are using it, the marketplaces set up by states that participate in it, and more people have healthcare now, it’s a fact.
It’s a tragedy that guy got murdered just because he works for a healthcare company.
The MR. WRONG COLUMN is a general-interest column appearing weekly. No refunds. Write Wrong: wrongcolumn@gmail.com.
WEATHER REVIEWS
New York City, December 11, 2024
★ A night filled with creeping warmth and the sound of pelting rain left no one wanting to get up. With sunrise still approaching, the streetlight and the lights under the scaffold across the way were brighter than the sky. By midday the rain had paused and a strong breeze was blowing up the cross street from Central Park and then somehow also rotating 90 degrees to blow along Central Park West. Down by Bryant Park, though, the air was stagnant, and the dripping was turning into rain again. People were ice skating on the rink in the middle of the holiday fair in the tropical humidity and browsing the seasonal offerings under umbrellas. In the time it took for a small cup of masala tea to cool down enough to finish, the rain had gathered into a real shower; the cup went into a trash can that had the handle of a ruined umbrella sticking up from it.
EASY LISTENING DEP'T.
HERE IS TODAY'S Indignity Morning Podcast.
Tom Scocca
Click on this box to find the Indignity Morning Podcast archive.
TOM SCOCCA
ADVICE DEP'T.
GOT SOMETHING YOU need to justify to yourself, or to the world at large? Other columnists are here to judge you, but The Sophist is here to tell you why you’re right. Direct your questions to The Sophist, at indignity@indignity.net, and get the answers you want.
SANDWICH RECIPES DEP'T.
WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of a sandwich selected from Fruit Recipes: A Manual of the Food Values of Fruits and Nine Hundred Different Ways of Using Them, by Riley M. Fletcher Berry, published in 1919 and available at archive.org for the delectation of all.
BANANA SANDWICHES
Slice and serve the fruit between Banana Loaf or plain bread with mayonnaise, or add lemon juice to the crushed pulp. Cress may be added.
BANANA AND NUT LOAF (For Tea Cake or Pudding)
To one cup crushed banana pulp add one cup each of chopped nuts, grated cocoanut, oatflakes and cracker or breadcrumbs, and one-half cup sugar. Into this sprinkle two teaspoons each of butter and baking-powder, one of salt, and sufficient flour to bind together in thick batter. Bake in moderate oven forty-five minutes.
If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net.
