Health (and) Insurance

As we approach the end of the year, much of the focus of the media and politics is on healthcare, and the new laws going into effect.  I am strongly opposed to nearly every aspect of the changes.  It's not that I think that everything was perfect as it was, but this is clearly a step in the wrong direction.

People don't need health insurance, they need healthcare.  Insurance is just one part of how that can be facilitated.  Insurance is the means, not the end, and technically healthcare is also a means, not an end to itself.  The desired end result is health, not healthcare, nor health insurance.  Society doesn't need cheaper health insurance, in needs cheaper healthcare.  This is due to both malpractice litigation, and pharmaceutical costs.  The government shouldn't be trying to lower insurance costs; it should be trying to lower healthcare costs.  Ideally they should stay out of it entirely, but the costs have been artificially inflated due to government regulation and manipulation, which is what made insurance so expensive in the first place.  And drug costs are insane.  I randomly came across someone else’s bill for medication, and saw that they were taking over a thousand dollars a month in pills, all at no direct expense to themselves.  It’s just a game between the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies, seeing who can charge more money, and how much money they can get invested into the system in general.

Neither health insurance nor even health care is a universal right.  It hadn't even been invented a hundred years ago.  The government should protect "access" to health care, but shouldn't provide it. People shouldn't be turned away because they are black, or gay, or any other discriminating way.  But it shouldn't be provided for free.

I am not a huge fan of tying health insurance to employment, but I have also never received it that way.  People should be responsible for their own health, not their employer, not the government, but themselves.  I agree that it is currently unreasonably expensive, but that does not lead me to the conclusion that the government should help pay for it.

Basic health maintenance care should not be covered by insurance, in the same way that car insurance doesn't cover oil changes and brake replacement.  That would cut costs dramatically right there.  And then just cutting out much of the regulation and bureaucracy would help as well.

Keeping oneself healthy is a personal responsibility, and hinges on many factors beyond insurance.  Certain treatable conditions are unforeseeable, and occur at no fault of the patient.  This is why insurance is important.  Having the government involved in its citizen’s individual health is huge violation of liberty.  Freedom entails responsibility, and if the government removes the responsibility of healthcare from someone, it removes that freedom as well.

In a more practical sense, once the government is paying for people's healthcare, that fact can be used to justify exerting control over other aspects of their lives.  Anything the government deems to be a healthier choice could be mandated in the name of lowering the resulting healthcare cost that the government is covering.  Certain places have outlawed soda pop and things like that, and this could be seen occurring in wider ways, being justified as being in the public good, both health wise, and financially.  While I am in favor of people making wise choices, they shouldn't be forced upon them, because then it is no longer a choice.

Our country was founded by people who believed that liberty was worth dying for.  Letting people be responsible for their own health and healthcare may lead to a few more deaths.  But isn’t freedom worth that cost?  “Give me liberty or give me death!” (Patrick Henry 1775)

Truth on the Internet

You can find all sorts of things on the internet, and it is hard to know what to trust.  The sheer quantity of information available inherently makes it difficult to sort through.  That is the whole reason search engines were invented.  The internet did exist before them, they weren't part of the "original plan" back when Al Gore invented the internet.

One of the original sources of misinformation was The Onion, a satirical news site.  Their stories were absurdly outlandish, and poked irreverent fun at a whole host of different things.  I have a sense of humor, so I was not opposed to what they were doing.  More recently, many more sites with made up news stories have appeared.  These are usually associated by people as something similar, satirical news.  But these new ones have little humor or deeper meaning to their stories, they are just lies.  The more outlandish the headline the better, and then unlike the Onion, they try to make the actual story as plausible as possible, regardless of how true it is.

Lots of people read these and share them with others, assuming they are true.  Unlike the Onion, it is hard to tell the truth from the fiction, and they are written that way deliberately.  And I finally realized this is the newest generation of intrusive advertising, like spam or pop-ups in the past.

Based on the way online advertising usually works, more visits or "hits" means more revenue.  So the creators of these sites put the most shocking content on them that they can dream up, hoping that the headlines will catch people's attention and hold their curiosity long enough for them to want to know more.  Now if the story was so ridiculous that you could tell right away that it was false, then it would not hold the reader's interest.  But if they believe it is, or even just might be true, then they will want to know more.  And then selectively providing links to related articles both confirms to the reader that this is part of a larger story, and provides more potential clicks and hits, and therefore more money for the host.  And getting it shared on Facebook or things like that just further magnifies its exposure and revenue generating audience.

The end result of all of this, is that the current system has set up an interesting set of incentives.  There are lots of people out in the world, at this very moment, trying to create the most believable pack of lies that they can come up with, purely to drive traffic and revenue to their site.  No one monitors what they are doing, and there is nothing illegal about it.  But it has all sorts of negative effects.  It misinforms the public, and anyone gullible enough to believe the stories.  It also adds lots of false content to the internet, making it harder to trust information found there.  And if some outlandish story is actually true, it is going to be very hard to share it, since most people will dismiss it as another satirical story trying to fool them into believing it.  So much for journalistic integrity.

People used to be worried that such a high percentage of the younger population got their news primarily from Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.  But that isn't so bad, they are usually just making fun of the truth, as opposed to propagating lies.  Truth has both practical and spiritual significance, and is becoming harder and harder to find.  While all of these new technological developments could make it easier to confirm and verify truth of communications and stories, it actually is making it more difficult.

The End of The World

I have been reading a very interesting book about the end times, called Win the World or Escape the Planet.  I usually avoid diving too deeply into things like end of the world prophesy, since I worry about that type of stuff enough already.  Focusing on it less is usually better, regardless of the context, and just take one day at a time, as the Lord provides them.  But this book has a very different approach than I am used to, and is fairly comforting in most aspects.  The author's definitely take the approach that most of the specifically predicted events took place in the first century, and only the final pieces still await us.  They make some pretty strong arguments for that case, and I can agree with most of them.

They deliberately try to be overwhelmingly positive, and while they do acknowledge that certain negative things clearly are coming, they sort of blow by those issues as quickly as possible.  They expect the world, and the spread of the church, to increase and improve, contrary to the prevailing Christian attitude.

The talk a lot about dispensationalism, which is a term I had never even heard.  They present that in a very negative light, so I am biased against it, but even without their commentary, I am confident I would be that way.  The underlying beliefs that those ideas stem from seem ridiculous to me: that God would change the rules (or ways of "dispensing" grace) repeatedly throughout history, and even more so that Israel and the church have separate destinies.  I had never heard them explained that way, but I had heard of most of the resulting ideas, including the rapture, the millennium, etc.  I just didn't know the variety of ideas that some people believe are associate with those possible future events.

Positive or not, I would rather not see any of that stuff take place anytime soon.  I'd prefer to live to a nice old age, right here on earth.  Heaven is supposed to be "better" than here, but God created this life to be experienced as well, in its own unique way.  Mortality adds a unique level of meaning to life, which I expect will be quite different in an eternal state.  Plus I am under the illusion that I know what to expect here on earth, while the afterlife is largely unknown.  From a Biblical perspective, life is inherently good, so I would prefer to avoid ending it anytime soon, regardless of whether from death or "the Second Coming."  But I have little control over any of that, and will have to take it as it comes.  The only thing I can do is pray about it, which probably isn't a bad idea.

Learning to Do Leisure

I am not very good at making a point to set time aside for leisure.  If the opportunity presents itself, I am getting better at making sure I take it.  But when those opportunities don't present themselves on their own, I eventually find that aspect of life lacking.

I used to feel guilty any time I wasn't doing something productive, but now I am conscious that spending time with other people is usually well worth the time invested.  That is "the point" of all of that work I do, to facilitate time spent "fellowshipping" with others.  But I still have trouble with the idea of taking time "off" when I am by myself.  I feel like I should be "doing something."

I did a lot better over the last couple of months, because having a girlfriend causes many of those opportunities to present themselves on a regular basis.  And having someone else to spend time with facilitates that process as well. Just having someone to talk to is its own form of leisure, which is far better than the alone equivalent of: thinking.

I know that "relaxing" isn't necessarily doing nothing, but I am not particularly good at doing either one, let alone both.  I find that when I am alone, my idle time is not spent effectively.  One could argue that is the whole point, but I in this case, it goes beyond that.  I need to get better at resting, both reserving time to do that, and then using the time that has been reserved for it to actually rest.  This includes sleep, although I have no conscious control over whether I am successful at actually falling asleep, not doing other things instead seems like a good start to facilitating that process.  And maybe the reason I can't sleep is closely related to the part about not being able to relax.  But what can one do about that?

What I do know is that I "relax" better when I am spending time with other people, so I probably should try to spend less time alone.  But most of what I have been doing recently is fairly solitary be default, and I don't exactly have too many social opportunities presenting themselves to me.  So I need to seek out those communal leisure activities more.

Let it Snow

There has been a good bit of snow accumulation here in the last couple of hours.  It will be interesting to see how much falls overnight.  It isn't every day that we get snow in my neck of the woods.  And this is the first time it has snowed on my new house, not that I expect that to be a problem.

I live in an area that does get snow on occasion, but not so frequently that it is a normal phenomenon.  That means that everyone makes a pretty big deal about preparing for it.  I was more focused on the cold than the snow, since that affects my newly replaced pipes and such.  But Home Depot and other stores I have been frequenting this week are doing pretty brisk business in generators and such.  I left a neighborhood late in the evening, and realized that while the road in had lots of traffic on it, I was driving on virgin snow on the road, meaning that while people were still returning home from work in the falling snow, no one in that whole area had left their home recently.  I guess I am just not as intimidated by snow as others are.  Or I am too stubborn to change my plans on account of a silly little blizzard.  I would have attributed that to never having experienced being stuck in the snow, until I remembered that wasn't quite true.  I got my truck stuck in a friend's driveway a couple years ago, and after extracting it back into a parked position, I ended up sleeping on her couch for the night, instead of attempting to head out again.  It wasn't a big deal though, and no damage to my truck from sliding sideways off of the pavement into a snow bank.

LA doesn't get snow, and the rare occasion of rain causes quite the stir.  But at the end of the days, rain rarely has nearly as serious an effect as snow.  You might have to move your picnic indoors, but you aren't going to get "stuck" in the rain.  So people down there aren't accustomed to having their plans changed by Mother Nature.  People in Minnesota on the other hand, come to expect that.  I am always amazed at how many large businesses are headquartered in Minneapolis, presumably for tax reasons.  So when I call up some of our vendors for tech support, I occasionally learn that they aren't in, due to a snow day.  And back when I lived in LA, that triggered the thought, "oh, it's winter, isn't it?"  It wouldn't otherwise cross my mind.  Sometimes they would mention that it was ten below outside, and I would point out that if they came to solve my issue in person, they could go to the beach just few miles from the office.

Anyhow, snow is always an adventure to deal with.  It will be interesting to see how much is on the ground tomorrow morning.  I don't anticipate too many dramatic effects this time around.  But it is still pretty early in the season.

Visible Progress

I have recently come to realize how important visible progress can be as a source of motivation.  That idea can be applied to a wide spectrum of possible changes.  In my case, the most obvious would be my house renovation project.  The first two months were very impressive in that regard, with major things happening every day.  The longer I have continued to work on it, the slower progress has become.  Part of that is because I spend less time on it, and have less help, so naturally less work is actually getting done.  But it is more due to the fact that the tasks I am working on are more cosmetic and meticulous, finishing little time consuming details.  So I can work hard all day, and look back at very little to show for my time.  But someone who comes over once a week will see changes, because they aren't seeing the individual gradations in the meantime.

It has been a lot less motivating to work on things the last couple of weeks, due to the lack of visible changes, which kind of makes me want to move on to another stage of the project.  But I know I need to finish up the final details on the things I have already started, instead of making a new mess somewhere else.  It would be more motivating, but there are other potential sources of motivation that I need to learn to tap into more effectively.

The importance of visible progress can be applied to other things as well.  For me the most obvious one in the immediate sense is the idea of getting married.  Whether I have made any progress in that regard recently is debatable, but there have clearly been some setbacks.  Longer term, the idea of having kids is a great example of this.  Birth is a visible change, and I am sure early on there are many changes, but they are spaced out by long nights of crying and dirty diapers.  As children get older, the growth usually slows, which makes it less visible when viewed in daily gradations, which is why threshold accomplishments are celebrated, like birthdays, first day of school, graduation, etc.  It is those times that we step back and realize how much has changed over a longer period of time.

Our relationship with God can be the same way.  For many people, their initial conversion is accompanied by big changes in their hearts and minds.  These changes can have a dramatic impact on their outward choices and actions, and noticed by both themselves and others.  But fast forward a few months, and that becomes the new "norm."  It is amazing how fast people can adapt to changes, both good and bad.  That is one of the reasons it can be so hard to see progress over a longer period of time.  But things obviously won't be perfect, no matter how much better the new norm is.  So that can cause one to question: "Am I doing enough?  Was that really change?" etc.  So we should be able to find motivation outside of visible progress, because it won't always be there, and that is okay.  We are always growing in one way or another, and many of those changes aren't easily outwardly visible to others, and too gradual for us to be fully conscious of either.  One of the reasons I have this blog is so that I can look at how my thoughts and beliefs on things change over a long period of time.  That is one of the reasons it is so interesting to go back and read old posts, to see how much I have changed and grown since I wrote them.  In the long run, the invisible is usually more valuable than the visible.