In order to properly paint the scene, however, we will need a lot of white -- plus a few tubes of gold for the casino itself. You see, it was January in a place that gets a considerable amount of snow, and the gilded structure stood out from the landscape like a hemorrhoid on a polar bear's ass. This bold monument to excess was the kind of place that you hope aliens would never accidentally send their ambassadors on a state visit, if only because they might not get the best impression of us earthlings (unfortunately, I suppose the same presently holds true with our nation's capital).
When we first arrived at the casino, I noticed a sign indicating that all of the sidewalks were heated. I had never seen such a thing before, and I wondered how expensive it must be to keep them all ice-free twenty-four hours a day for about four or five months of the year. As I did the math, even before I walked in the front door, I figured that the only good bet to be had was that I wasn't coming out of this place ahead.
Inside, the lights and sounds were similar to what it must be like inside the mind of a schizophrenic, all of it competing for our attention in sudden bursts of spectacle. My friends and I soon split up, each of us following our own distractions. As I walked around, trying to decide where I was going to spend the whopping ten bucks that I had allotted for this experience, it soon became pretty obvious that, aside from the employees, we were the youngest people in this place by at least five or six decades. Everywhere I went, I detected the faint smell of Listerine.
Little tufts of white and grey hair were sparsely situated throughout the casino. Upon closer inspection, I discovered the hair to be attached to some kind of early-stage zombies whose only movement came from the arm that pulled the lever... over and over again. Many of them even had lanyards around their necks that were plugged directly into the slot machines, effectively creating an actual physical connection between the casino, these retirees and their bank accounts. It all seemed very automated, as if these machines were sucking the life right out of these people one dollar at a time, all while hypnotizing them with a false illusion of hope.
So why do I mention all of this? Fair question, my imaginary friend. It is because I am reminded of this scene every time that I pay an insurance premium. In the long-term, as made evident from the moment you walk into one of these places, the house always wins. In very much the same respect, for-profit insurance companies are designed to screw the customer, and the evidence is right there in the executive bonuses and stock dividends. This is why these health "care" corporations, for example, sell treatments instead of cures, and it is all part of an elaborate scam that inevitably puts the interests of shareholders before those of the policyholders. Where do you think those ever-increasing profits come from? (If you want a hint, think about those heated sidewalks I mentioned earlier. It's kind of the same idea.)
Every time you purchase an insurance policy of any kind, you are essentially wagering against your own good fortune. You are saying "I bet that I'm going to need this," and insurance companies are naturally happy to take your bet... because they know damn well that the game is rigged in their favor. This may not come as a surprise to anyone, but for-profit insurance companies have to turn a profit. That means that they must constantly grow, which means they need to always be on the lookout for new ways to screw their customers.
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| Is this covered? |
Much like the casino, if you were getting a good deal, they wouldn't be. And most of that goes to the very top of the pyramid scheme. That deductible you paid? Think of it as part of a Kickstarter campaign that a bunch of rich assholes (or "job creators," if you prefer) started so that their entitled children would never have to work a day in their lives. Meanwhile, the legitimate claims of policyholders are routinely denied and their premiums unfairly increased because people who already have more than enough of just about everything want even more. The neoliberal economic model in any system only fosters increased inequality, whether discussing health care, education or basic standards of living.
Insurance as a whole only works in the favor of the policyholders when the profit motive is removed from the equation. End of story. Other countries have figured this out. Even here in the US, most people want single-provider, nationalized health care, but because of the political power of corporate lobbyists and the legislators they own, this has yet to materialize. Now, of course, these bastards are doing everything they can to kill off a public healthcare system that was already in critical condition by undoing even the meager steps that had been made toward an equitable solution.
There is nothing civil about a civilization that lets its own people die because they cannot afford treatment, and there is nothing democratic about a nation whose elected representatives put their own interests before those of the people they were elected to represent. Don't be fooled: any member of Congress who voted to pass the "American Health Care Act" is only acting like they care about Americans' health.
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