Proud to be an American, Where At Least I Know I'm Free
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")
About a month ago I was met with an unfortunate occurrence. Somehow, in the process of drinking an iced tea with small granules at the bottom, I awkwardly swallowed a larger-than-usual granule. Having had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy in my youth, I have occasionally had the annoying misfortune of getting foreign objects lodged in the passage between the nose and throat. The granule felt as if it had found the same unhappy spot.
But unlike in past circumstances, the granule did not seem to dislodge. After taking steps to flush my sinuses and research the subject online, I came to the conclusion that it might simply be a scratch. But it certainly felt as though there was an object there, and I was having a sinus reaction accordingly. Unfortunately, it was also 8 o'clock in the evening, which meant that I had two choices: stick it out until morning and see a regular physician, or head to the emergency room. I'm not the type to go to the emergency room for colds or flu; I tend to use medical services sparingly. But the discomfort was intense. After much internal debate, I decided to go to the emergency room. After all, I was having a physical reaction to whatever it was that was making basic swallowing difficult. I have insurance, and whether it were a foreign object or just a scratch, it couldn't be too complicated or expensive.
I knew it would take some time to be seen; after all, my case was probably the least critical they had. So I brought a book and settled in for the long haul. After 3 hours waiting on the floor of the emergency room without even a chair to sit in, I was finally admitted. A harried doctor examined me for approximately 30-90 seconds with a regular scope, said he couldn't see anything but that there might still be blockage that he was unequipped to detect, said there was nothing else he could do, and sent me on my way. The actual visit took less than two minutes.
Today I got my bill. The total? $371. $371 for a three-hour wait, followed by a two-minute visit, with no procedures of any kind performed. And that's with pretty decent insurance.
This story should be an outrage. But, of course, it isn't. It's a completely typical occurrence in modern America, a most trivial complaint in a sea of raging injustice that bankrupts hundreds of families every day for the crime of having gotten sick.
But here's the rub: even such a trifling issue as the one I've described can serve an object lesson in the failure of conservative economics. I run a small business; most the work I do is performed in-house, but I do often employ subcontractors. The degree to which I employ them is predicated on demand: i.e., whether I can keep up with the workload without losing income by farming it out to others.
With an unexpected $371 to pay, I will be forced to take on more work myself, and be stingier about hiring a subcontractor. That decision will have a domino effect on all sorts of businesses and services that I and my subcontractors might use. In its own small way, it's a hit to economic growth.
But conservatives expect that I should be grateful for keeping my corporate tax rates low, even though those tax rates make almost zero impact on whether I hire a subcontractor or not. Remember: it's demand that drives hiring, not tax rates. Either there's too much work for me to handle comfortably or there isn't. A marginal difference to my tax percentage on end-of-year profits makes essentially zero difference to my hiring decisions.
But that $371 medical bill certainly does. To say nothing of the fact that it will dissuade me from seeing a physician next time something goes wrong--and that next time it might just be serious.
So thanks, conservatives, for fighting against a decent healthcare system to keep my corporate taxes low! You've done a great service...for somebody. But not for me as a small business owner. And not for my employees and subcontractors. And not for this country, which still yearns to be free of your small-minded, economically ignorant tyranny under the guise of "freedom from taxes."