When two sides are at an impasse, it is as I recall good practice to find some underlying common ground. In the case of healthcare, couldn’t that common ground be what’s good for individual citizens? Couldn’t that criterion if taken seriously usher cutting through the political, philosophical and ideological posturing that has created the impasse? It wouldn’t be easy. It would mean that each side would need to connect to a new mind-set, something difficult in Washington, where winning is often more important than true principle or real common values. It seems the current mind-set leans toward leaving people out, or at least seeing them in utilitarian terms—their votes. Either way, that does not serve the needs of democracy. Whether it is the good of the people or some other underlying criterion, let’s hope one is found lest harm sets in.
February 2010
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Surely No Worse Than Any Other
PrescriptionSolutions is a large mail order pharmacy which among its many thousands of clients serves a large percentage of AARP members. Not only does it have several call centers throughout the nation, and several pharmacies, its mail service division is separate from its pharmacies. When one calls one is routed to the nearest call center and that request is then referred to a pharmacy in that person’s geographical area. If one calls to ask a pharmacist a question, however, that pharmacist could be anywhere. What all this seems to add up to is numerous opportunities for errors. In fact my dealings with them have inevitably resulted in one error or another. When I’ve attempted to speak to customer service representatives, I’ve felt I was talking to people who had been programmed like androids and who could not respond with much relevance to what I was asking. When I wrote to them, I received—promptly I must admit—a reply that showed the same level of comprehension, for the answer was not in direct relation to my question. PrescriptionSolutions is a private business. It runs as do other big private concerns like phone, cable and other utilities companies, like the bureaucracies they are. And like the stereotype we hold of any bureaucracy they evidence errors, inefficiency and less than superior service.
In all my years of dealing with the Social Security Administration on behalf of parents and others, I’ve never encountered serious problems. Government bureaucracies may have their issues, but they may be better and surely no worse than any other. -
Let’s Be Informed
A survey by the Public Policy Institute of California had some revealing, if disturbing findings. Californians haven’t any idea where the state gets its money or how it spends it. And yet the survey shows Californians want themselves to be in charge rather than the governor or the legislature. The institute pollster Mark Baldassare found that only 6% of Californians could identify both the biggest revenue source and the biggest expenditure. “It seems to me that what you need as a starting point are some basic facts about where the money comes from and where it’s going, to make sound fiscal decisions, and they don’t have that base of knowledge,” he said. Voting in the dark can hardly be called responsible. Thinking you know what’s involved in the issues when you don’t can’t be the basis for anything good. And yet, it does seem that is what happens, in California as in other states, with local as with national issues. Regardless, here is a big problem that is easy to fix and without any price tag—let’s be informed.