Fine me.

(PS: I still like Michelle.)

Dear President Obama,

Last night I got serious about trying to find an “affordable” ACA-approved plan for the fast-approaching March 1st deadline — sign up by Feb. 15th! — or face your federal fine.

The net net of my exhaustive research: fine me.

Why?

• My husband runs a small LLC, and I’m also starting a new business. (go job creators!)
• We found and bought an affordable (catastrophic) plan on the open market in 2013. This was pretty petrifying, then strangely exhilarating… (No crappy jobs required! We can take care of ourselves!)
• Empire BCBS cancelled it, since it didn’t meet the ACA requirements. Never mind that it met our requirements. (i.e. we pay awesome providers out of pocket to keep us well.)
• I live in NY, which has no catastrophic plans available (thanks a lot, Gov Cuomo).
• We believe in, and invest in healthcare, not sick-care.

Let me clarify that last point:

Sick-care is more than just a lifetime of prescriptions and interventions required to maintain crappy lifestyle choices. It’s also our American Medical Way: MDs are forced to practice medicine that best serves the all-mighty Insurer, to keep their doors open. Tests, drugs, shots, referrals to specialists, and interventions/surgeries get reimbursed. Nothing else does.

This is the area that is RIPE for investment. Just look at all the “adherence tech” American VCs are investing in. I saw an ex-Facebooker on a McKinsey video talking about putting sensors on inhalers, and wouldn’t that be awesome for all the asthmatic kids out there — in summary, “Asthma is a big market”.

Does no one see the sick - nay, immoral - “innovation” from which VCs and angels like he want to profit?

Some people compare the ACA to “socialized medicine”. If only!

You know what would be ‘socialized medicine’? A single payer system built upon a foundation of health and wellness — e.g. services (and reimbursement for providers) that emphasize good habits in nutrition, exercise, sleep and balance. Unfortunately, our economy is now dependent on disease-causing habits and the sickcare industry that supports and enables it.

In summary, the ACA is a money-making machine for Insurers, Big Pharma and Biotech companies that profit from us sick-care consumerists.

We’re the sickest rich country on the planet. In the EU, they fought tooth and nail to call something made with vegetable oil “chocolate” back in the late 90s. Our beloved NYTimes made fun of them. Petty, silly Europeans!

We’re instead happy to eat our containers of man-made food-like products, get our MDs to test/prescribe/cut/stick to “treat” us, and continue along in our sick stupor.

So, please fine me.

Regards,

Elizabeth