Source: Political Musings by WBlackford

Well I guess we had it wrong the entire time. An article in today’s New York Times highlights what it’s like to be labeled an immoral villain by the president and political pundits. Those poor, poor souls.

The New York Times has been developing a habit of presenting opinion articles as news columns and this fluff piece about the individual faces behind the corporate insurance giants definitely belongs in that category. Perhaps they need to expand their Op-Ed section to include such things instead of sticking them in the News section where they do not belong.

Our intrepid hero, Max Shireman, is depicted as your average American man who enjoys a good beer and watches television with his wife. How could one possibly dislike such a man when he is so like the rest of us? Well, that’s the problem; I don’t dislike Max Shireman. That doesn’t mean, however, that I have to like who he works for or what they do. The article slyly asserts that because I don’t dislike Max, I should therefore not dislike his employer? Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way and I am surprised that the New York Times would insult our collective intelligence by assuming that it does.

The fact remains that what insurance companies have done is made a business, and a thriving business at that, from something that, by all accounts, should be considered a right but has been made into a privilege. This article would have us think that all employees of Humana are out only to help people, rather than trying to turn a profit.

Director of commercial sales training at Humana, Cheryl Tidwell, suggests that she and her kind are getting a bad rap because they are standing up for what they believe in. Apparently those beliefs include “control[ing] costs by controlling utilization and getting people involved in their health care.” Are we really supposed to believe that a company, which posted $28 billion in revenue last year and whose president rakes in an annual salary of $4.8 million, is majorly concerned about anything besides said revenues?

I hate to play the insurance giant villains card that has been done to death but I cannot help playing said card when the numbers are right there to be seen by all. These all American, microbrew-drinking, “Top Chef” watching “angels” have turned health and survival into cash in their pocket. The health insurer’s bad reputation has not come out of nowhere.

Shame on you, New York Times for spoon feeding us this puff piece and insulting our intelligence. Of course Humana’s employees are human beings just like us; anyone who believes otherwise is a radical loon. But when is the last time that we all agreed that humans are inherently good and out to help society and the less fortunate?