Question: What is the difference between a leech and a private, profit-driven health insurance company?
Answer: The leech has a legitimate role in the practice of medicine today.
Seriously.
No, really. Leeches can be used to provide medical care (read more about medical uses of leeches and maggots
here and
here).
Insurance, on the other hand, is not and has never been
Health Care.
Insurance is a way of
paying for Health Care.
Insurance is supposed to make Health Care affordable. But it doesn't, at least not in this country.
The problem we face is
not how to provide all Americans with
insurance. The problem we face is how to provide all Americans with affordable
Health Care.
We have been told that we must stick with the private, profit-driven health insurance system we have because change would be too disruptive. We must invest more in a system that has proven it does not work. Even though insurance does not do the one and only thing it is meant to do -- make health care affordable -- we must all buy it.
It's tradition. It's history.
We'd be better off with leeches.