Testimoney

I continue to sit in on Senate Finance Committee meeting hearings where testimony has been going on. Yesterday, we heard from quite a slew of insurance brokers and though they seemed like likeable individuals and they each had a slightly different story, the subtext seemed to roar - "I'm afraid! There's a lot of really scared people out there. Fear is just going to increase. Panic, fear, upheaval! Locusts, earthquakes, disaster!! Could we just slow down. CHANGE IS NOT A GOOD THING! It scares me. I'm smiling in front of you now, but I could easily shit my pants. We're going to lose out here and we're scared, so you should be scared too. FEAR, FEAR, FEAR. MORE FEAR FEAR FEAR. Things are changing. Do you realize you're making us feel like dinosaurs. We provide an invaluable service. People need handholding through all the morass of the ever changing premiums and costs and hidden hoo-hahs. There does need to be reform, we're part of the solution, we like most of what you're saying, but don't change us, don't change anything about us, change other people, but not us because this is the way it's been done for years and that's what we know, and did I mention that I'm scared, fearful, in panic, and just trying to hold on to what's mine?! Could we just slow down?!!"

It is refreshing when someone comes into the room and parries through the hype and simply speaks facts. It dispels fatigue. You sit up. There is a ring of authenticity and clarity. There is a gratitude. And my hat goes off to the senators on the committee. They treat everyone with great respect, ask cogent questions, and are dedicated to their offices.

This afternoon I'm to sit in on a full Senate debate. Someone has tacked on a Death with Dignity amendment to a Tanning Salon bill. Hmmm? The move was done in "revenge" for someone else's underhanded move to vote an add on to a bill while someone clearly opposed to it was momentarily out of the room. Testimony and debate on this should be interesting. They're dubbing it Tanning with Dignity. I'm imagining tanning salons set up in hospice care facilities. Let them look good as they're on their way out.

Health Care tidbits.

Back to testimonies. I listen to these personal stories and it seems as if the recurring theme is "burying the lead" unconsciously or consciously. What's not being said? Or what's being passed over that's really where the emphasis should be. For instance above when I mentioned the broker's saying they are really needed to help client's machete their way through the kudzu vine of new premiums, new hidden costs, etcetera. To me, more than proving their indispensability, it screams that if we had Single Pay, save for the transition over, everything would be simplified and clear and under one umbrella. Everyone could be their own best expert. In another testimony, a woman who works for the insurance industry was citing an example from her own life where her 2 chronically ill children with $10,000 deductibles each were prescribed an prohibitively expensive drug by a doctor who thought it was covered by her insurance. She was attempting to blame the medical profession or that doctor specifically, but what screamed to me was "$10, 000 deductibles each?!! That's criminal!! And drugs weren't covered? And you work for the insurance company? You don't question greed in this? Doesn't something sound wrong about this set-up?!" Excuse my passion, but sometimes it seems so obvious. Yet another testimony by a nervous, sweaty representative for small businesses spoke of a 20 question questionaire he passed out to a goodly chunk of small business owners. He kept saying that it was "totally unbiased, completely unbiased" and then proceeded to list these findings - 95% didn't know this was going to go into effect in 2014; 12% would keep their insurance, the rest get rid of it. Now what was screaming to me, and one of the senators inquired about this in an indirect way, "Where's the questionaire? What were these questions? How were they worded? Was there an option that this change would be a good thing or was it all fear, horrible, panic, don't change, horror, hell, end of the world?!"

Fascinating process.