Health Murder Organizations

HMO CEO?

A woman walks into a room and notices that her mother is hooked up to the respirator that helps her breathe. But the electricity bill has been really high lately, so she decides to pull the plug to economize. After all, her mother has had a good long life and the daughter could use a few extra bucks to pay the greens fees at the local country club. What would you call such a person?

A wife is stricken with breast cancer and has no insurance. The treatments will cost $40,000. Her husband looks the bank balance. He has the forty grand, but he’s got his eye on a BMW. He buys the car. What label would we apply to such an individual?

A street juggler has drawn an enthralled crowd. His act is amazing—he can juggle Indian clubs, a bottle of digitalis, and a defibrillator at the same time. One man is so excited that he goes into cardiac arrest. But the tips are coming in fast and furious, so the juggler continues his act. How would you assess his ethics?

A baby needs a blood transfusion in order to live. The local hospital staff has been really busy lately, so they decline to perform the procedure. They’ve done the math. Every day 216,000 children are born in the world and it just doesn’t make sense to waste human and monetary resources on such an easily replaced commodity. Would we applaud the business acumen of such an institution?

Absurd examples? Not really. They parallel the kind of decisions made by HMOs every day in America. And so they shall continue as long as medical care remains a for-profit delivery system. Consider this the next time you switch on your TV or cruise the Internet and come across propaganda that tells you that health care reform is “socialism,” or that it will rob you of “choice.”
You’ll hear that “government programs” are wasteful and that the “private sector” is always a better solution. Really!!?? By that reckoning there should be no healthcare crisis in America. The government has had no role in soaring costs, unless you think Medicare is a wasteful program and you like the idea of pulling the plug on the elderly! Sorry—the vaunted private sector is the very architect of the current mess.

Who are these people who stoke the fears of government-led “socialism?” Most are like the man who’d rather have a BMW than his wife—they place self-interest above all else. And if you think that’s just my opinion, check out recent Harris polls. Government programs are unpopular, Americans hate them, and they want to rely on themselves, right? No way. Medicare and Social Security have 76% approval ratings, with only the National Parks and crime prevention programs garnering higher rankings. Medicaid—which delivers medical services to the poor—is viewed favorably by 71%. And by the way, Americans are really pissed off about welfare bums, correct? Not at all; 65% approve of emergency aid and 59% of food stamps. In fact, the only government programs we don’t like are the INS and foreign aid.

The glaring problem with the current medical system is that its primary goal is not your physical health, it’s the financial health of shareholders. The logic is akin to that of most capitalist enterprises and few of us would get upset if HMOs were in the entertainment field. We can live with a cancelled TV show. But what if a CEO decides to cancel your life? This happens. Like the juggler and the heartless hospital, HMO executives look at how much revenue is coming in, what actuarial data tells them, and how they can maximize financial resources. What choice, exactly, do you have if your HMO says “no” to a procedure you need? Sue them? Maybe your estate will get a settlement, but that’s pretty cold comfort!

So let’s strip away the propaganda and cut to the moral quick: it’s immoral to profit on the illnesses and misery of others. Health Maintenance Organizations are an oxymoron. At some juncture every HMO decides that you’re just not worth the cost any more. And what should we call that logic? See my title.