Pay Attention, P-L-E-A-S-E!

Since I started speaking out against the abuses of the insurance industry, I have heard from hundreds of people with maddening and heartbreaking stories about being mistreated and victimized by the greed that characterizes so much of the profit-driven American health care system.

Many other people send me links to articles or broadcasts they have seen. When I worked in the insurance industry, we called them “horror stories,” and for good reason. The circumstances people often found themselves in were nightmarishly horrible. As an industry PR guy, my mission was to keep as many of those horror stories out of the media as possible. We didn’t want the public to know.

It occurred to me recently that Americans are not sufficiently outraged because they either don’t hear these stories or, if they do, don’t believe how commonplace they are, or that anyone they know could experience the same misfortune. Or they might hear that more than 50 million Americans don’t have insurance because they can’t afford it or, in many cases, can’t buy it even if they can afford it, but they don’t stop to think that real human beings make up that abstract 50 million figure.

The reality is that these stories are indeed commonplace. Almost all of us -- regardless of our age, income, job or political affiliation -- are just a layoff or plant closure away from being uninsured, or a business decision beyond our control from being underinsured, or an illness away from being forced into bankruptcy and homelessness.
~ from Time for Outrage by Wendell Potter ~

In many ways, Potter has put his finger on the biggest malady with far too many Americans: People aren't paying attention (which may sound odd in a world awash in information).

If something doesn't impact you or me directly, we simply don't think about it that much. Yes, we acknowledge that it IS a "problem," but it's not our problem! If it's not our problem, then we figure somebody else needs to do something about it.

That, in and of itself, is a very sad commentary on our society.