What a crappy online business taught me about Health Care
An interesting confluence of events helped my crystallize some thoughts this morning. The first was last night’s passage of President Obama’s Health Care Reform Bill by the House of Representatives by a five-vote margin. The second was a phone conversation I had with a representative of DinoDirect.com, an online reseller of tech toys.
Background: Just over a month ago, I placed an order with DinoDirect for a pair of iPhone headphones, a dock and a case for my 3GS. I was amazed at the prices - the entire order was only $14.89 and shipping was free. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of quality but I figured that, even if the products were total crap, I was only out fifteen bucks.
After two weeks went by with no package, I contacted the company’s online customer service and they told me that things were slow because the products were coming from China. Nontheless, three days later, a package arrived with the headphones (which suck) and the dock (which does not). But not the case.
It has now been over a month and I called the company’s phone number this morning. Yes, it’s a Sunday, but I was pleasantly surprised that someone answered. Until I discovered that the person who answered the phone spoke almost no English and all she could tell me ws that the case was out of stock. When I asked when they expected to get it in stock, she told me they would issue a refund for the case.
I decided to take them at their word; we’ll see if the refund actually comes. That’s not the important part. The lesson here is that I’m not surprised to get lousy service since the prices this company charges are so low. I would be foolish to expect top-notch service at bargain-basement prices.
Robert Heinlein wrote about this idea in several books and used the term TANSTAAFL to describe it; the acronym stands for There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch and, while Heinlein didn’t invent it, his work is where I first encountered it.
What does this have to do with Obama’s Health Care plan, you ask? Simple.
Anyone who thinks the current state of affairs in US Health Care is acceptable is foolish. Things are too expensive, regulations stifle innovation, doctors are prohibited from giving good care and everyone is unhappy. However, the President’s proposal is not the answer.
Put simply, TANSTAAFL: you can’t just legislate your way to better care at lower prices. Something will suffer. The sort of Socialized Plan President Obama has proposed (and, yes that’s what it is) has been tried elsewhere in the world and, in every case, has led to a lower standard of care and longer wait times for treatment. Wealthy Canadians and Eurpoeans routinely come to the US for medical treatment since the rationing of care in their country makes the wait times unbearable.
In short, the plan is bad for many people in the short term and bad for everyone in the long term.
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But that’s not all. Here’s what really worries me: the majority of President Obama’s support in the genereal election came from Americans with less wealth. Yes, that’s a generalization, but it also happens to be true. It’s also true that most of the President’s domestic agenda items (Health care reform, tax reform, the financial bail-out) favor the poor over the wealthy… but are paid for by taxing the wealthiest Americans.
Think that through for a second.
In the long term, what will a pattern like that do to class relations in America?
TANSTAAFL, folks. If you are currently one of the 96 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, do you really expect a new law to -poof!- give you insurance without anyone paying for it? Employers will foot the bill… and salaries will drop. Or people will get fired. Or taxes will go up. The money has to come from somewhere.
I would love to be wrong about this. But anyone unselfish enough to not be blinded simply has to see how this plan is a bad idea.
