Break Over, Time to Complain

Reader, sigh. I guess it was just a matter of time before someone decided to capitalize on the nation's anxiety about healthcare in this country. UnitedHealth just introduced a new insurance product called Continuity. Care to take a guess? Brace yourself: Continuity is insurance to insure your right to be insured.

Of course, people who are already sick will not be able to purchase this product, because as we know! Only healthy people need medical care. I guess sick people can seek out care from the Church of Scientology, you know, exercise and vitamins.

Does it go without saying that this is one of the most depressing things I've read in a while? Though these are depressing times; let me modify that--the most depressing thing I've read in a day or so.

Consumer groups and financial planners are not so keen on this new product, planners likening it to "sleeping with a life preserver on," and consumer advocates sanely pointing out that this does not address the urgent need for health care reform. The Times article quotes Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a consumer advocacy group: “This product is taking advantage of the lack of sensible health reform that could easily solve this problem.”

But if this problem is so easily solved, why hasn't it been? Lack of political will, power of the insurance industry lobbyists, fear of being called a socialist? Since the nation's tide is taking a decidedly socialist turn, maybe we're in for some change we can believe in, or so I've been told by the Obama campaign about a bazillion times. Let's hope so. I can't take much more of this ridiculosity.