Remember when “some” of us were kids and there was a television show called, “Romper Room?” The teacher would look through a “looking glass” and name the children she saw. If she said your name, you would squirm joyously in your seat thinking she really saw you. What a happy discomfort because then, maybe she really saw you. She didn’t.
Right now, America is holding its own Romper Room mirror, and looking deep into the heart of corporate America. Corporate America, is squirming without that childish joy, instead feeling a nervous discomfort at being seen. We do see them.
More than the fear that their CEOs might meet the same fate as United Healthcare’s Brian Thompson, they are squirming under the disinfecting light of exposure. And, much like roaches exposed to bright light, they began to scatter, frantic to find shelter back in the darkness in which they were so very comfortable — where they could fatten themselves on the backs of the rest of us.
Americans are calling the names of the corporations, exposing the ways in which not only healthcare corps but others have profited off the blood and sweat of the American body, and finally, demanding that big changes happen.
Don’t make small demands. Make them grand.
While many Americans admit to feeling somewhat indifferent to the death of Thompson, what they have been sensitized to — in a flash — is the way his life and death reflects against their own. Thompson died a multi-millionaire, on his way to report the billions of dollars that United Healthcare profited from the denials of claims. Many of those denials were directly responsible for the injuries and deaths of thousands. Americans are sharing stories of harm from having claims rejected.
Americans saw the nation’s law forces muster an obscene amount of resources to search for, and find a person they claim is the killer of Thompson. Again, Thompson’s privilege, wealth, and class reflected brightly against the life of regular Americans. People saw how money made mountains move for Thompson, but for most regular families, awaiting news on killers of their loved ones, no mountains have been moved. They will wait forever.
Americans are also watching in real time as the news media, both conservative and liberal, feign confusion, yet flail around in weird gymnastics to scold Americans for seeing the inequity, and speaking about that instead of Thompson. How dare Americans ignore this beacon of capitalism’s demise, and note the deaths of their relatives as well as their own lack of access to care by his company and others?
Corporate media, particularly the television and print conglomerates, have shown their true colors and suddenly, being right-leaning or left-leaning means a whole lot less. These outlets are owned by a similar corporate beast.
Fair and balanced ain’t so fair or balanced, and performative liberal media is showing they need to keep those corporate dollars just like their friends at Fox. Even Kentucky’s own Scott Jennings is doing the dance with the rest of corporate media.
Americans finally have a laser beam tuned directly into the “haves” realizing that most of us are the “have-nots.”
It is this awakening that has shifted the conversations about what we are allowing to happen in this country. We see that the culprit is all around us, having worn the colors of both parties, and lied directly to the American people for a long time. We get sicker, poorer, and farther away from the idea of an American Dream while the people we elect, the people we elevate with our labor, grow richer, live longer, and more luxurious lives by stealing, and scheming our collective dollars right from our pockets. Insurance plans, in particular, are contracts that are repeatedly broken by the insurance companies. The money we pay into these systems gives us a very unequal return.
In the immediate, Americans are calling for the bare minimum — relief from the weight of healthcare costs, and possibly a universal care system like every other developed country in the world.
The “how will we pay for it” refrain will be loud, but looking at the trillions we’re spending with insurance, we’re already paying for it. All we need to do is to shift that money from corporate oligarchs back into the care of our nation.
We’ll also hear, but “the wait times” lie.
My friends in countries with socialized medicine don’t experience unreasonable wait times. In fact, they often go to see the doctor with more regularity than we do because it is convenient, and inexpensive. The prices they are charged allow them to pay their medical bill at the counter in the hospital — on the same day without leveraging their savings or their homes to do so.
While I marvel at their access to care, they are shocked that we don’t have it. When I explain, their faces contort in the same puzzlement that almost every American is experiencing right now as the healthcare debate has garnered the spotlight.
When my family went to Japan and Korea this fall (both nations with socialized medicine), my husband and I walked into a bookstore in Seoul, got eye exams, progressive lenses, frames for prices that most Americans only see online. We got excellent service, weren’t asked about insurance, and paid less than half of what we pay with insurance in America. On top of that, we visited two pharmacies in Japan and had pharmacists assigned to tell us how to safely use the medicines we were purchasing. All of these things happen in a health/care system that works for its society, but we don’t have health/care, we have illness management.
Americans know, maybe for the first time as a unit, that something in corporate America better shift, and it seems that people are ready for whatever fight it takes to make America better for living, and less expensive when we are sick or dying.
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This article appears in Dec 4-17, 2024.
