How About Embracing Universal Health Care in America? – The Health Care Blog

By MIKE MAGEE

Joseph Campbell, who died in 1987 at the age 83, was a professor of literature and comparative mythology at Sarah Lawrence University. His famed 1949 guide, “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” made the situation that, in spite of various cultures and religions, the hero’s story of departure, initiation, and return, is remarkably constant and defines “the hero’s quest.” Bottom line: Refusing the call is a terrible idea.

George Lucas was a close buddy and has stated that Star Wars was largely influenced by Campbell’s scholarship. On June 21, 1988, Invoice Moyers interviewed Campbell and started with a clip from Star Wars where by Darth Vader suggests to Luke, “Join me, and I will full your instruction.” And Luke replies, “I’ll in no way be a part of you!” Darth Vader then laments, “If you only understood the electrical power of the dim facet.”

Questioned to comment, Campbell mentioned, “He (Darth Vader) is not thinking, or living in terms of humanity, he’s dwelling in conditions of a procedure. And this is the risk to our life we all confront it, we all operate in our society in relation to a procedure. Now, is the program going to try to eat you up and decrease you of your humanity, or are you going to be equipped to use the technique to human functions.”

Programs absent awry? Consider Putinesque Russia, or Psycho-pernicious Trumpism, or Ultra-predatory Capitalism.

Dara Kharowshaki, the CEO at Uber, who took in excess of the company from uber-bro, Travis Kalanick, is a fan of Campbell’s and understands the journey of a hero – departure, initiation, return. Probably that is why he defines “movement” as fundamental to life…adding intentionally the qualifier “movement in the proper way.” In an job interview in December, 2021, with Brian Nowak, Equity Analyst, U.S. Internet Business, for Morgan Stanley, he pushed for company engagement in a assortment of problems such as “sustainability, safety, equity, and anti-racism – these are all challenges that go to the main of who we are, and our id.”

How did health treatment escape that list, in particular thinking about the firms financial investment in “Uber Health” – a wellness treatment delivery assistance advertising pace, care coordination, privacy, and price-productive and dependable transport to and from care-giving brick and mortar?

It may perhaps have anything to do with the point that Uber has fought tooth and nail to stay away from delivering wellbeing care as a benefit to its motorists. In 2020, the enterprise joined Lyft, DoorDash and other gig businesses in throwing $205 million into a lobbying effort in California titled “Yes on 22”.

Track record: “California, with its approximated 1 million gig workers, has been the most significant U.S. market place for that type of labor. Officers reported the workers were deprived of overall health treatment, a bare minimum wage, job security, and fundamental protections versus discrimination and sexual harassment. So legislators approved Assembly Invoice 5 (AB5) in September 2019 to grant advantages to specific classes of gig workers, like Uber and Lyft motorists, by building them personnel.”

“Yes on 22” was industry’s counter-reaction. In their effective drive, in which they outspent the opposition 10 to 1, “yes” truly meant “no” for motorists, further cementing their contractor standing instead than necessitating that they be treated as thoroughly entitled personnel. With this bit of trickery, intended by Republican pollster, Invoice McInturff, they gained by a 59% to 41% margin.

The winners argue that Prop 22 is “preserving versatility and pairing it with new protections.” In return for the contractor status they experienced to concur to subsidize health and fitness protection for its California drivers who normal 15 to 25 hrs a 7 days engaged as motorists or couriers to the tune of 41% of what typical health positive aspects would have been.

Dara may possibly not be nervous to offer full health and fitness protection to his personnel, but he’s suitable that movement is essential to existence – specifically if by movement you indicate access to health pros, their establishments, their diagnostic devices and their therapies. In this arena, Dara is caught in the center of the “hero’s quest.”

He has passed through phase 1 and “departed” the dark brotopia environment, and is at this time brushing up against difficult options inside of a stormy phase 2 “initiation.”

This has involved a rather uncomfortable incident that occurred on May possibly 26, 2021, when Uber motorists outside the house of California received an email (which began with the optimistic opening line “Its a great time to get wellbeing protection,”) saying that the firm would be subsidizing their health coverage, only to study in a hasty comply with-up e-mail that it was all an uncomfortable error. It browse, “Unfortunately, we built a error sending this e mail to you, as this coverage only applies to motorists and shipping and delivery people in California. We sincerely apologize for this mistake.”

Devoid of naming names, Dara has evidently saved his very own listing of Darth Vaders in Silicon Valley. As he sees it, “Some of them grew up much too speedy and some of them did not get obligation for their electrical power and I assume now they are becoming referred to as to reckon… I think the age of ‘I crafted a platform, I’m not dependable,’ that time is over. And now the problem is, what does the duty glimpse like? Defining it and placing guard rails all around it, I think that is a balanced factor.”

But his enemies could possibly reply, “You know what else is a wholesome factor? Well being insurance plan!”

As Dara himself would admit life’s a journey, and movement toward hero status is crammed with bumps alongside the way. Will he make it to period 3, a hero’s welcome on his “return?” Earlier this calendar year he said, “Sometimes the procedure ‘works too well’: I feel capitalism has its claws in our democratic societies in techniques that has authorized it to extremely enhance for its advantage.”

These are challenging periods to direct – no question. Maintaining families alongside one another, processing worry and stress, increasing chance and productivity – all are worthy and crucial targets that can only be recognized if our citizens have obtain to wellness care. That would most definitely be a “move for the much better.” So why not get at the rear of common wellness treatment, Dara?

You could be a legitimate hero. As Joseph Campbell stated “Is the system going to try to eat you up and alleviate you of your humanity, or are you going to be in a position to use the system to human purposes?”