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 well-known 1949 book, “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” manufactured the situation that, in spite of different cultures and religions, the hero’s story of departure, initiation, and return, is remarkably consistent and defines “the hero’s quest.” Bottom line: Refusing the get in touch with is a poor strategy.
George Lucas was a near mate and has reported that Star Wars was mainly affected by Campbell’s scholarship. On June 21, 1988, Monthly bill Moyers interviewed Campbell and commenced with a clip from Star Wars the place Darth Vader states to Luke, “Join me, and I will entire your teaching.” And Luke replies, “I’ll by no means be part of you!” Darth Vader then laments, “If you only understood the electric power of the dim aspect.”
Asked to comment, Campbell explained, “He (Darth Vader) is not wondering, or dwelling in phrases of humanity, he’s living in terms of a technique. And this is the menace to our life we all experience it, we all work in our modern society in relation to a method. Now, is the technique going to try to eat you up and decrease you of your humanity, or are you likely to be ready to use the process to human functions.”
Devices gone awry? Believe Putinesque Russia, or Psycho-pernicious Trumpism, or Extremely-predatory Capitalism.
Dara Kharowshaki, the CEO at Uber, who took in excess of the company from uber-bro, Travis Kalanick, is a admirer of Campbell’s and understands the journey of a hero – departure, initiation, return. Perhaps that is why he defines “movement” as basic to life…adding intentionally the qualifier “movement in the appropriate direction.” In an interview in December, 2021, with Brian Nowak, Equity Analyst, U.S. Net Market, for Morgan Stanley, he pushed for company engagement in a assortment of issues including “sustainability, protection, fairness, and anti-racism – these are all issues that go to the main of who we are, and our identification.”
How did health and fitness treatment escape that listing, specifically considering the organizations expenditure in “Uber Health” – a wellbeing care delivery service promoting velocity, care coordination, privateness, and price-effective and responsible transportation to and from treatment-giving brick and mortar?
It could have some thing to do with the fact that Uber has fought tooth and nail to keep away from delivering overall health treatment as a advantage to its motorists. In 2020, the business joined Lyft, DoorDash and other gig companies in throwing $205 million into a lobbying hard work in California titled “Yes on 22”.
History: “California, with its believed 1 million gig workers, has been the premier U.S. market for that type of labor. Officials stated the personnel were being deprived of overall health care, a minimum wage, job protection, and standard protections towards discrimination and sexual harassment. So legislators approved Assembly Invoice 5 (AB5) in September 2019 to grant gains to sure lessons of gig staff, which includes Uber and Lyft drivers, by producing them staff members.”
“Yes on 22” was industry’s counter-reaction. In their thriving travel, where by they outspent the opposition 10 to 1, “yes” really meant “no” for motorists, further more cementing their contractor standing alternatively than necessitating that they be dealt with as fully entitled staff. With this bit of trickery, made by Republican pollster, Monthly bill McInturff, they received by a 59% to 41% margin.
The winners argue that Prop 22 is “preserving flexibility and pairing it with new protections.” In return for the contractor status they had to agree to subsidize well being coverage for its California motorists who common 15 to 25 hrs a week engaged as drivers or couriers to the tune of 41% of what typical well being advantages would have been.
Dara may well not be nervous to offer entire wellness protection to his employees, but he’s suitable that movement is critical to life – specially if by movement you indicate obtain to health professionals, their establishments, their diagnostic machines and their therapies. In this arena, Dara is caught in the middle of the “hero’s quest.”
He has handed by means of period 1 and “departed” the darkish brotopia entire world, and is at the moment brushing up from tough options in just a stormy section 2 “initiation.”
This has provided a relatively embarrassing incident that happened on May possibly 26, 2021, when Uber drivers outside of California obtained an email (which began with the optimistic opening line “Its a wonderful time to get health and fitness coverage,”) saying that the organization would be subsidizing their wellbeing protection, only to study in a hasty observe-up electronic mail that it was all an uncomfortable mistake. It browse, “Unfortunately, we produced a error sending this email to you, as this coverage only applies to motorists and delivery folks in California. We sincerely apologize for this error.”
With no naming names, Dara has evidently saved his individual checklist of Darth Vaders in Silicon Valley. As he sees it, “Some of them grew up far too rapid and some of them did not acquire obligation for their energy and I imagine now they’re being referred to as to reckon… I consider the age of ‘I built a system, I’m not responsible,’ that time is more than. And now the query is, what does the accountability appear like? Defining it and putting guard rails close to it, I think that is a healthful point.”
But his enemies may possibly reply, “You know what else is a nutritious factor? Well being insurance policies!”
As Dara himself would acknowledge life’s a journey, and motion towards hero position is loaded with bumps together the way. Will he make it to stage 3, a hero’s welcome on his “return?” Earlier this year he claimed, “Sometimes the method ‘works too well’: I imagine capitalism has its claws in our democratic societies in ways that has allowed it to overly optimize for its advantage.”
These are rough times to direct – no question. Maintaining people together, processing panic and fret, expanding prospect and productiveness – all are deserving and necessary goals that can only be realized if our citizens have access to health treatment. That would most unquestionably be a “move for the much better.” So why not get at the rear of universal health care, Dara?
You could be a genuine hero. As Joseph Campbell said “Is the technique heading to try to eat you up and reduce you of your humanity, or are you likely to be ready to use the system to human functions?”