Matt Helt | SecretPenguin Blog

With the current media saturation of all things health care, I wanted to weigh in on something that’s been troubling me for for awhile now. Our country has been radicalized. Both the right and left-wing pundits are the only ones who have a voice anymore, and they seem to be driving most of the debate. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of us who occupy the middle, we’re left out of the debate simply because we keep our mouths shut. There is no radical middle.

And what would the radical middle say? My hope is that they’d be screaming for a rational approach to our problems. Everyone knows health care is screwed up. Insurance premiums are too high, the costs for doctor visits and medical procedures are insane, and prescription drugs prices in the United States are bankrupting our citizens who are on a fixed income. Each year the problem gets worse. Insurance and pharmaceutical companies make huge profits. We get higher premiums with less benefits. What good is having the best health care in the world if we can’t afford it? In my instance, I pay for my family’s health insurance out of my own pocket. Each year the insurance company comes back to me and tells me my rate will be going up 25%. If any other industry has those kinds of price increases we’d revolt. We’d boycott their services. But since health insurance is supposed to protect us from financial disaster in the event of a medical emergency, we put up with it. No one wants to drop their insurance in protest.

So what do our leaders do? They bicker over solutions, but in the end they do nothing. The right accuses the left of being socialist, while the left accuses the right of being puppets of those industries. This isn’t working. In the end, those of us in the middle, the vast majority of Americans, will continue to suffer.

There is an answer. I agree with the right that it will be too costly to insure everyone. I agree with the left that people deserve the right to health care. The compromise is the that we need to stop the increase of costs. I want to pay for my own health insurance, but I shouldn’t spend a large amount of my yearly income on it. We’re moving towards a society where only the wealthy will be able to afford insurance or treatment. The rest of us are stuck. The medical and insurance companies have to answer to their shareholders, and shareholders have only one thing on their mind - profits. They want the companies they invest in to make lots and lots of money. So as Big Pharma and insurance companies make larger and larger profits, stock prices go up. They stay happy. The executives of these companies make more money due to their shareholders driving up the share prices. The only motivation is profit. People’s lives are on the line, but that doesn’t matter.

I understand this. Human beings are inherently selfish. For the most part, we could care less about other people. It’s our nature to look out for ourselves. If you can’t support yourself, then why should I have to support you? But that’s one of our major flaws. We’re driven by what’s good for the individual, not the group. We pursue options that will make individuals wealthy beyond belief, but never look for solutions that will grow the middle class. The wealthy have the power and influence, so they pressure legislators to create laws that benefit them. The middle class continues to lose its power. The majority of those who champion the rights of the poor are wealthy. Wealth is power, plain and simple. If anyone has uttered the phrase “I write the checks” to you, then they are very aware of the power they have.

The middle needs to radicalize itself. We need people to come forward who will champion the cause of the middle. In a world dictated by money, we need to vote with our checkbooks. If the insurance companies suddenly had no revenue come in for a month, you’d see a change real fast. Our power comes from our collective pool of money. We can’t afford to sit back and let the radicals on both sides guide the debate. The middle has to get angry and drown out the left and right. They can no longer speak for us.

So where is our radical middle? Who out there is willing to mobilize the middle to come together and vote with their pocketbooks since our elected leaders won’t listen to us anymore? Who will go on TV and make the left and right look like the polarizing idiots that they are? We need to find those centrist leaders - fast. My one requirement is that they don’t associate themselves with either party. They need to be willing to form a new party, one that isn’t motivated campaign contributions or lobbyists. Anyone out there who fits this profile? If so, please step forward and make your voice heard. We need you now more than ever.