November 31, 2022

If you’re a 99 Percenter (and there’s about a 99% chance that you are), here’s a little secret: You didn’t come out too well in the health care debate either. Long before the banks were tappin’ your ass with usurious fees, penalties, and interest rates, the insurance companies were sucking you dry like big, fat leeches with exorbitant deductibles, greed-driven coverage denials, and obstructive customer service tactics. More importantly, insurance company lobbyists completely framed the debate about how the American health care system (aka “The Finest Health Care System in the World” – well, except for its 37th-place finish in the World Health Organization’s rankings in 2000) should operate. It just may turn out to be one of the greatest PR victories of the 20th century. The notion of a baseline government-run system of health care was dismissively portrayed as recklessly extreme socialism and shelved almost immediately – as was the idea of allowing the government to offer its own competing, low-cost insurance. Instead, insurance companies leaned over the plate and took the huge hit of not being able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions (What? We can’t just let people die?) and were made to suffer the further indignity of having to sell everybody insurance. Everybody. Well, “everybody” being everybody who can afford to buy health insurance – which they will be required to do by law. Those unable to pay would of course receive federal assistance to purchase private health insurance. This requirement – aka the “individual mandate” – was an incredibly genius reach-around compromise that made desperate liberal Democrats feel at least like distant relatives of Mother Teresa, but in reality will have at best a minimal effect on overall health care costs as a percentage of gross domestic product, which is the one health care category in which America really does kick everyone’s ass. U…S…A! U…S…A! While Obama was busy grabbing his ankles (or maybe he was tying his shoelaces?) in the name of political expediency, insurance companies were wetting themselves at the prospect of millions of new customers getting lost in their infuriating voicemail labyrinths and trying to make sense of Byzantine billing statements. Really, why should poor people be spared the experience of being driven to the edge of insanity by “the finest health care system in the world”? But wait … there is some silver lining: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (insurance executives get a semi every time they hear that read out loud) includes important mental health coverage provisions, the most notable being that pre-existing mental-health/substance-use disorders can’t be used as a basis to deny coverage. That should be something of a relief for the folks at the SIMS Foundation, who will be hosting their annual SIMS Benefit Bash fundraiser this Saturday at the Austin Music Hall. For more than 15 years, SIMS has provided access to and financial support for mental-health services for Austin-area musicians and their families. Given the staggering number of aspiring rock stars here in the River City (many of whom are at least a little kray-kray), that is a monumental task. If you think the PPACA means that SIMS can just throw in the towel, you are a bit mental yourself. Most of the benefits conferred by the legislation don’t go into effect until 2014, and the law itself doesn’t go into full effect until 2018. That’s a major gap to fill, which is why you should buy a ticket, sponsor a table, or maybe drop some coin on some cool auction items at the SIMS Benefit Bash. Make a night of it. Blow it up. Paying for mental health care will never be any funner than this.