More to the Story on Oklahoma Health Insurance

After writing here about my concern in regards to the statements attributed to Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland and Representative Steele, I had sent an email with those concerns to the insurance commissioner. In today's email I received a thorough and courteous response from Ms. Holland, which I am pasting here.

There's always more than one side to every story, and in this instance, as undoubtedly happens more often than we know, the reporting media took a very small portion of a day-long conference and reported it out of context. Here's Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland's email response:

"Thank you for taking the time to write. As so often happens with media, the story told is not the whole story or even the story. I cannot and would not punish anyone who can't afford health insurance. Allow me this opportunity to clarify what actually took place.

Over the past three years, I have led a public effort involving hundreds of Oklahomans from all four corners of the state and all walks of life to develop a road map that ensures all Oklahomans have access to high quality health care and affordable health insurance. We are very close to having a workable plan for our legislature’s deliberation and, hopefully, enactment. November 20th’s Summit on the High Cost of Health Insurance (the fourth) continued a serious and deliberative discussion as to what must be done to reduce the cost of insurance. Our focus was on improving the quality of health care delivered to our citizens through greater access to primary and preventive care. This can best be accomplished through affordable insurance options that provide low cost access to physicians, prescriptions and necessary associated medical services.

We are in the process of developing such options and conceiving a plan to provide adequate assistance to individuals (dependent upon income) who do not have employer subsidized coverage. Once in place, our challenge becomes how to encourage enrollment.

I would like to believe that those currently uninsured (about 17% of our population, mostly working aged adults) would buy coverage if is affordable. Unfortunately, experience tells us that some individuals simply will not prioritize purchasing health insurance – particularly if they believe they can get “free care” through an emergency room. In reality, that expensive free care is passed on to those who have insurance. If you are one of those, your health insurance premiums are significantly inflated to cover the costs of those who receive medical care and do not or cannot pay their bill. Almost $1 billion dollars in unpaid medical expenses is passed on to insured Oklahomans each and every year.

For a very few minutes out of a thoughtful day-long meeting, we lightheartedly discussed potential consequences for not purchasing insurance. These ideas were not in the form of any kind of proposal or urging, but rather intended to provoke discussion about the need to compel people (particularly the 19 – 32-year-olds who make up a large portion of our uninsured) to obtain insurance – again once affordable options are available.

I care very deeply about our citizens’ ability to get the medical care they need when they need it in the appropriate setting. I have made this the primary goal of my service to our citizens and will continue to do so as long as I have the opportunity. I welcome your suggestions and comments and, again, appreciate hearing from you. Kim Holland"

More Than A Tragedy...A Horror Story

So many things are legendary about Black Friday in America--that day after Thanksgiving when retail stores offer bargains on just about everything to entice shoppers to part with their "green" to launch the official Christmas gift-buying season. Until yesterday, I was unsure as to why the day was referred to as "black," but after the animal-like behavior of November 27, 2008 in Long Island, New York, I fully understand and agree with the adjective.

A 34-year-old man whose job it was that day to unlock the doors at Wal-Mart to the crowd that had been gathering overnight, was trampled to death by shoppers who couldn't get inside the store fast enough. Although this happened at a Wal-Mart, it could have happened at any retail store that participates in the Black Friday "festivities."

It was so important to the people bent on not missing out on one single bargain that they walked over a human being lying on the floor, breaking the door on their way. These were not people famished from days of not eating who just wanted a loaf of bread, or even people ill with a deadly disease whose only cure lay beyond the doors of the store. These were people who just had to have a flat screen TV or Talking Elmo, or one of any other bargains of the day. They wanted these material things so badly that the bodily welfare of another human being meant nothing to them.

The senseless loss of life, such as in the terrorist standoff in Mumbai, India or the suicide bombings that occur almost daily in the Middle East--those are tragedies. Even though most of us don't agree with the motivation of the people who instigate such violence, somewhere in our minds we do understand that the folks who perpetrate such acts do it based on strongly-held beliefs. That doesn't condone their activities, but it does at least rationally explain them.

The Black Friday horror story of a man trampled to death by bargain hunters is just raw and inhuman. I don't know how any of the people involved in this senseless death are feeling a day later, but I would wager next month's wages that not just a few of them are defending their actions by "everyone else was doing it."

A man died doing his job. When a soldier, policeman, or fire fighter--people who took on their jobs understanding the inherent danger of the positions--lose their lives, towns and cities mourn--as they should. This man could not possibly have perceived the danger he faced that morning, and no matter how the story gets spun--that maybe some actions of the man might have contributed to the incident--he was NOT responsible for his death. The people who knocked him down and walked over him like so much rubble are; I wonder how fulfilling their shopping bargains seem now.