4th of June

Today is celebration day. The 4th of June Celebration.

You may wonder if I am right, you may be thinking of another 4th of Ju... ?!
There is another country with a 4th-of-Celebration. It is Poland. Poland is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the first free elections in the former Warsaw Pact, which signaled the end of Communist rule in Poland.

Quoting Ian Kelly, Spokesman of the United States Warsaw Diplomatic Mission: "The past twenty years have seen Poland emerge as a regional leader, a member and significant contributor to NATO for ten years and to the EU for five years. The United States and Poland celebrate 90 years of diplomatic relations this year, and one of the greatest events of that period is the one we commemorate today. Poles have every right to be proud of what they accomplished on this day in 1989."

How come?
There have been people at the shipyards of Gdansk (former Danzig), who asked for improvements of their lives, and came together under the name "Solidarność", which means Solidarity. There have been requests for some improvements, mostly history now, but there was one highly actual request: improvements in the national health service - every person that is employed or works in Poland has to be insured, here in our country of the American Dream this is still a dream.

And just today, 4th of June, the day of Poland's celebration, I read disturbing news:
Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies !
Quote: "Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy" - read this article!

And this:

1. Killing patients with fine print.
2. No definition of "medical necessity" and "experimental treatment."
3. Delays of medical care.
4. Junk insurance.
5. Manipulating "risk."
6. Dumping the sick.
7. No accountability.
8. Refusing access to expensive doctor recommended medications and devices.
9. Balance billing and Network Restrictions.
10. Staggering rate increases.

These are the ConsumerWatchdog.org Headlines posted today, June 04, 2009 !

Most of these points I know from my own experience and observations. The Company I worked for dumped me after my Cancer treatment (by Law Layoff os not allowed during treatment), and now I am happy having an affordable health insurance after finding a loophole to get in, but I know many have not.

Reading these ten points you may ask "How come?"
Imaging that:
You are CEO of an Health Insurance Company.
Your primary goal for your company is to increase the wealth of its shareholders (owners) by paying dividends, to deliver a maximum shareholder value - what is the easiest way to achieve this? Of course you have to have customers, people who need health insurance, they pay your income. You need Advertisement to get customers, that's a lot of money you have to spent for.
These are vital expenses for your company. Advertisers will not lower their fees because it is for your health insurance company. So you have to save money elsewhere. You need helping ideas?
There are ten points which may help you. Look at the ten points above!

I often heard the saying one should "Walk in Another Person's Shoes" - we just did that.
I am pretty sure you are not a CEO. But you may have been ill and you experienced your side of view. May be you are thinking what I did before I met my wife and she walked with me to a specialist who discovered that I had cancer. Before this I thought "I cannot afford to be ill without any income. I better die".

This is the situation we have. How can we get a situation which helps us, the people, who need to have affordable health insurance which will cover the costs we cannot afford ourselves in case we are ill?
The Shareholder Value looks like a sheer obstacle. But what if all the insured people are the shareholders themselves? In this case it would be much harder to use the ten points list to save money, because everybody will be interested in having a good treatment by his insurance company. To get such an insurance owned by the insured people themselves it needs solidarity.

Is it a coincidence that today, 4th of June, Solidarity is celebrated and the despairing news ask for solidarity? Everything happens for a reason, they say.

There are countries where people have solidarity kind of insurance.
Even People get paychecks when they have to stay at home or at the hospital.

Look at the benefits:
The more people are insured by one company, the more the financial burden can be shared. This is pure Mathematics.
The broader the mix of insured people - poor and rich, healthy, less healthy, and even ill - of a company, the better the financial burden can be shared. This is pure Mathematics.
It is called Solidarity.

Will a health service for every citizen remain an American Dream, or will this Dream come true?

Solidarity has brought freedom to the People of Poland, and today they are celebrating the 2oth anniversary of their choice.
With solidarity a health service for every American Citizen will become possible.