Obama's healthcare address

I am watching the President's address on healthcare reform. As usual, the President gives a good speech, and the first half hour or so contains little to complain about. Anecdotes about insurance companies who (and they do) cut people's coverage off when they get diagnosed with cancer, deny people because of pre-existing conditions etc.. These stories speak for themselves, and the President does have a point when he says that there is no place for behavior like this in the USA. When you think of the kind of money that gets thrown around in this country, the size of executive bonuses, it's hard to dispute this point. It's hard to rationalize a woman with breast cancer being cut off insurance and having to haggle to get it back while the cancer spreads. It's hard to rationalize an insurance companies motive to "cherry-pick" it's customers, to actuarialize people like figures on a table, to better their bottom line, to show wall street that they were more profitable than the previous quarter. It's hard to rationalize the kids that die because they did not have access to medical care for dental problems (this also happens).

At any rate, I'm a good bit through the speech and my only major CONCERNS about this are as follows:

1. Will this whet the appetite for a socialistic minded administration to decide to make other things 'mandatory?' Healthcare coverage becoming mandatory like car insurance? Well if you don't want car insurance then don't buy a car, but if you don't want health insurance...then what? What's next? Will the administration come out and say that guns are bad and kill people and we all have to pay so let's suspend your constitutional right to bear arms? In other words, don't tread on our freedoms!

2. On a related note, what gives the government the right to dictate to insurance companies what they will do? They must cover people with pre-existing conditions, no annual or lifetime caps, must cover preventative care (makes sense though) etc.. I know the insurance industry is highly regulated anyway, and there is obviously a place for government to regulate, as I don't believe unbridled capitalism usually generates proper ethics (look at how globalization has caused a race for the bottom in wages and living standards, jobs go to China where working conditions for the employees are wretched)...but what effect will this have on business? How do we know that this won't reduce insurance companies, and limit the options? How do we know if a non-profit insurance company can run well? If it can, why don't we have any number of them?

One thing is for sure: We tend to get the best results when people act in their own best interest. As shocking as this seems, think about how likely you are to get what is true, what is fair, from a haystack of bureaucrats, some of them peeking their heads out of someones pocket? If you doubt this, look at how our government let the financial industry rape the taxpayer, and how the CEOs of so many companies collect million dollar payouts while their companies lose money (not to mention ruin this country, cause unemployment, general misery, suicides, abuse etc).

Harmony

I'm currently reading from Paul Tillich's The Meaning of Health, and it has pulled together some various ideas I've had floating around in my head over the years. First of all, the introduction, by Paul Lee, draws the comparison between immunology and the mental. To me, the immune system is a clear area where the "mental" and the "physical" interact. Not to say that I believe these respective categories are even valid, but given our scientific medical times, I would venture a guess that this will be the most vital and interesting area of study in the next 50 years or so.

As regards the title of this post, Harmony, I would like to leave you with a few points. (Also related to Tillich's book). Viewing health in terms of a wholeness, we can see that it is of vital importance to have harmony in our existence, in our lives. I think of this in terms of "vectors," like in physics. We can multiply the power of our efforts if they are harmonius, or we can negate our own efforts if they are conflicting.

The point is, to align our energies; align our "will" and the even more inclusive term "Intention."

The same energies that are vital to mankind; the energies (some have called libido) that push us out into the world to live our lives, can propel us toward fulfillment, or consume us if turned against each other. Are we able to live our lives under the Sun in one consistent arrow --> ?

If so, it is a life of integrity.