Do Americans Need a Health Care Equivalent of Kiwibank?
August 10th, 2009A lot of people are submitting stories about the health care issue that’s boiling over in the U.S. at the moment. As you guys have obviously noticed, I’m not paying attention to most of it because the conventional medical industrial complex is the last place that I would turn for any health related issue; I don’t care who’s paying for it. (I live in New Zealand where conventional health care is almost totally publicly funded.)
I’m not saying that you should go to a naturopath if you have been in a severe car crash. Of course, in an immediate, life threatening emergency, a hospital is the place to go. However, the conventional medical responses to chronic, degenerative diseases are insane at best and atrocities for profit at worst. I wouldn’t put most pharmaceutical drugs into a landfill, much less into my body. (In practice, they are put into drinking water.)
I’ve come up with a term for people who are routinely involved with prescription drugs: Homoallopathicus. Toxic drug people. The toxic drug people I’ve known want their toxic drugs. They need their toxic drugs. They’re prescribed more drugs to deal with the symptoms caused by the previous batch of drugs. I’ve seen this with close family members, friends, friends of friends, ex-girlfriends, workmates, etc. It’s just f*&%$# nuts.
So, is it ridiculous that Americans are routinely winding up in bankruptcy as a result of seeking dangerous treatments to address conditions caused by decades of exposure to toxic work, food, air, water, etc? Yes, definitely. Is it ridiculous that the government now wants to make the toxic drug religion compulsory for everyone? Yes, definitely.
What you’ve got there in America is a massive shit sandwich. There’s going to be no pleasant way to choke that thing down. On the one hand, you have the diabolical medical industrial complex buying off every breathing politician, writing the text books used in medical schools, running full time PSYOP against providers of viable alternatives (this list could go on forever), and on the other hand, you have millions of morbidly obese zombies looking for a pill to make it all better.
I know. It sounds harsh. But do you ever notice what “normal” people eat? Go to a big box store and look in the shopping carts. Here are the major food groups: Genetically engineered corn and soybeans, liquor, sugar and carcinogens. If you don’t know what’s actually made out of genetically engineered corn, you’re in for the shock of your life if you look into it. That’s why I didn’t mention meat; see genetically engineered corn. Now, the government is going to tax the living shit out of everyone and borrow even further into oblivion in order to patch up the zombies so that they can keep eating their DingDongs and breakfast sticks?
It’s an open air nut house. It’s beyond nuts. It’s Steve-O-on-Jack-Ass-launching-sky-rockets-out-of-his-butt nuts! (You can find your own links to that, if necessary.)
It’s sad that medical science is so badly compromised, but now the plan is to expand that system by borrowing money from other countries! I don’t see how mixing that grim situation up with a steaming heap of Hope and Change is going to improve anything.
All of that said, there are definitely times when “the market” fails. The market has failed, in terms of health care in the U.S. Call it over regulation. Call it collusion. Call it anything your want. Brother, that thing is screwed.
I see failures of the market all the time in New Zealand. While it’s nothing like the terrifying state of health care in the U.S., maybe there’s something to be learned here for Americans.
In 2005, the World Bank called New Zealand the most business friendly country in the world. What does that mean?
In practice, what that means is that instead of the state controlling the show, a handful of crooked private companies run things. In New Zealand, this mostly means Fonterra, and lots of Australian companies, but Telecom New Zealand is the one people love to hate.
Let’s look at banking.
The Aussie banks that dominate the scene in New Zealand all got together and decided to charge everyone absurd fees for routine banking services. Of course, I can’t point to names and dates where this agreement happened, but that’s definitely what happened. The situation that the alleged “market” produced sucked for everyone, except the Aussie banks.
In 2002, a Labour and Alliance Party coalition formed Kiwibank, a bank that is wholly owned by the New Zealand government. When National Bank (One of the Aussie banks) was constantly screwing up and charging us ridiculous fees for the privilege, Becky and I decided that enough was enough. We shopped around and compared the fees. Kiwibank was, by far, the best option. We think Kiwibank is excellent and we’re not alone. About 300 New Zealanders move their accounts to Kiwibank each day.
Kiwibank is a case that demonstrates how the state can set up an enterprise and compete with private corporations and be incredibly successful at it.
The New Zealand government should do more of that kind of thing in areas that are deeply and profoundly screwed, such as with rural Internet pit of despair. I’ve never been bent over a barrel the way I am right now to have a usable Internet connection. The market has failed in a spectacular manner out here in rural New Zealand.
I know, the rah rah free market heads will say that the market didn’t fail, but simply that it’s not in any company’s financial interest to provide any sort of terrestrial broadband Internet connection out here. The only alternative is to pay 3X more for a substandard satellite connection.
In other words, the market can and does fail to provide people with critical services at affordable prices.
Here’s another example of how the market failed in New Zealand: Pre-paid mobile phone service. Up until a couple of days ago, Telecom and Vodaphone colluded competed in providing pre-paid mobile phone service in New Zealand. Vodaphone charges NZ$.89 per minute. Telecom charges NZ$.89 per minute. Fascinating coincidence. Maybe that’s just what it costs in New Zealand. Right? (New Zealand has some of the highest voice and data costs in the developed world.)
2degrees went live on August 5th offering prepaid mobile for NZ$.44 per minute.
Half.
It’s a free market, anyone is can start up a business to compete and 2degrees eventually did. But it took nine years to launch 2degrees Mobile. NINE YEARS. Nine. Is there a functioning market in place when two different private companies are able to price gouge like this for so long? No. Not in my opinion.
With health care, there are private hospitals in New Zealand. I don’t know who uses them, but people do or they wouldn’t be here. They obviously provide a compelling service that people are willing to pay for.
If the U.S. government thinks that it can provide health care at a more affordable price, why doesn’t it try to compete with the private health care sector the way Kiwibank competes with the big Aussie banks?
Yes, the health care system in the U.S. is broken. However, the quasi fascist urges of the Obama regime and its collusion with the pharmaceutical industry are breathtaking.
Perhaps the Kiwibank example offers another path. When private corporations created a system as corrupt and sloppy as the Aussie banks created in New Zealand, it took a 100% NZ government owned bank to demonstrate to everyone how crooked the situation was. Rather than trying to legislate the Aussie banks into behaving, the government just met them eye to eye in the marketplace and went for it. Kiwibank beats all of the Aussie owned banks in customer satisfaction.
Maybe a similar type of thing can be tried with health care in the U.S.
I used to be with a bank called Trustbank. It was an amalgamation of most of the old trustee savings banks from around the country. The only ones that weren’t part of it were the ones from Taranki and Auckland. Anyway, in the mid nineties Trustbank did a big add campaign about how they were the only kiwi-owned nationwide bank and then a few months later they were bought by Westpac, who temporarily called them Westpac Trustbank. The continued use of the word Trust must have been bordering on misrepresentation but no one complained.
I have no idea what went on behind the scenes to set the deal up but as soon as it went through every bank in New Zealand introduced the insane bank fees that you are familiar with.
When we went to get a mortgage in 2000 the only choice worth looking at was the old Taranaki Savings Bank, now TSB Bank and still run by a trust. It was still dishing out profits to the community while routinely having the best mortgage rates and also having no fees on it’s accounts. Why the entire country didn’t shift to them I will never know.
Incidently, Jim Anderton, the politician who was behind Kiwibank was regularly derided as a communist for setting up Kiwibank and also for his belief that the government should provide support to small business people.
Needless to say 90% of the population still thinks we was a raving communist. Like the old joke says, there are 40 million sheep in this country, 4 million of whom think they are people
If it’s any consolation, terrestrial broadband Internet options don’t exist for a surprising amount of the rural US.
Satellite is the only option, and it sucks here just as much. Well, maybe not quite as much as yours does. 😉
@Aaron
I have no idea what went on behind the scenes to set the deal up but as soon as it went through every bank in New Zealand introduced the insane bank fees that you are familiar with.
Wow, I didn’t know about that.
Re: TSB: The only reason why we didn’t go with TSB was because there’s no branch near us. I routinely deal with foreign currency checks so… Kiwibank was the way.
thanks for the post, Kevin.
do i think what you are suggesting will ever happen in the US? no. after the US becomes the dis-US? yes. too big to fail? ha!
re:NZ banking, it indeed sucks, mud (i am just back from camping in the rain and mud for a week).
the aussie banksters, the RBNZ and Treasury (tax law) manufactured the real estate/dairy bubble. someone made a lot of money. i wonder who?
historically (before 1984), NZ had four “trading banks”:
BNZ (govt-owned)
National (Lloyds)
Westpac (aus)
ANZ (aus)
the Post Office Savings Bank (govt owned)
about 10 regional community-owned trustee savings banks (incl. ASB, TSB, and ones for Canterbury, Wellington, Otago, etc.)
about 10 medium-sized building societies (mutual societies)
ok. then the bnz was bankrupted by certain famous banksters and sold to the NAB (aus) for a song. the ASB was somehow stolen and sold to CBA (aus), national was sold by Lloyds to ANZ (aus), POSB was sold to ANZ, all the trustee savings banks (except TSB)were stolen and sold to Westpac (aus), all the mutual building societies were mysteriously demutualised and sold to the aussies. this is not a market, nor a failure. it is a methodical takeover. now, simply a case of absentee landlord rentiers taking their generous cut from everything. just like the telecomms sector, actually. and supermarkets. why do nz-ers put up with it? well, about 20-30% of them were making big money from various bubbles until recently, and the rest were not listened to when they complained. 49% of the voters decided a new rightwing got would fix it all. of course it would. fix. it. all. i am sorry to sound patronising, but i really think most nz-ers have been significantly dumbed down over the last 25 years. they are less practical and more credulous. quite sad, imho.
No. 8 fencing wire has been replaced with a PS2 controller. fffft.