Like Prometheus
I struggle to write this morning. I awakened to the details of the Republican replacement for the ACA. The Affordable Care Act was a work in process, an attempt to blunt the double digit annual increase in health care cost. The measure was a heroic attempt. The real issue always has been and is now the unrestrained escalation of the cost of health care that continues unabated. Now only those who by reason of fortunate cmployment can bear the cost of medical care. For the rest, not even insurance coverage subsidized from the treasury is enough to make health care affordable.
Like Prometheus the trickster, collectively we have sought to counter our mortality with the artifice of our technology, the application of science in the arts of medicine. According to ancient legend Prometheus stole fire from Mt Olympus to benefit humanity. Big pharma, hospital corporations with near monopoly over regions, and a few insurance companies have unfettered profits, and more so with access to the public purse. We are willing to spend enormous sums in a virtual negation of our mortality, and thus are seduced into unpayable debt.
With the replacement for the ACA the Republicans want to do away with the individual mandate. For whatever reason, say under- employment, or a family crisis,— one chooses to go without insurance for a while….. No problem. Go ahead and exercise your freedom to go without coverage. But … to reinstate your coverage you will find the premium has increased by 30%. For some this will be a death sentence.
“Meet the new boss. Same as the old Boss.”
Like Prometheus, collectively we will suffer a severe penalty for our hubris. Prometheus is said to have been eternally chained to a rock and his liver is eaten daily by a great eagle, a symbol for Zeus himself. Prometheus lives on because he is immortal. His liver regenerates nightly.
We like to think that the American experiment is exceptional, immortal, mythic, not subject to decay and demise. That is simply untrue.
