The Growing Black Hole

I monologued a few days back about how I'm primed for a pay cut next year. An effective pay cut due to the 20.3% biennial increase in medical insurance premiums my utility faces.

Of course, this increase is on top of near double digit annual increases over the past several years. As Obama's long term health care plan hasn't yet arrived, it'd be rather mendacious to assume this should be held liable for these past increases. Yet remarkably, we now have a Republican controlled House that's primed to roll back this health care initiative before it even starts -- back to our existing 18% of GDP (and growing) black hole, into which we're squandering a great deal of public monies while our population continues its epidemic rise in obesity and diabetes.

Pardon me if my lack of enthusiasm doesn't come across very well.

You might think that our consumer price index would reflect this 10% year-over-year increase in my health care premium...but apparently it must only be affecting me. Nope -- CPI shows only a 1.1% total increase over the last 12 months. Nope -- prices aren't rising.

Nope -- my utility didn't just raise electricity rates 13% over the past 18 months. I didn't just get another 8% increase in my garbage and sewer bill. And neither did my cost of health care escalate...not according to those official economic barometers.

I enjoy thinking about these economic indicators, and thinking about how totally fucking useless they are to the bottom 75% of us. It is an interesting dynamic. To those employed the unemployment number is but a meaningless empty statistic. It's also a meaningless empty statistic the those unemployed.

But what isn't meaningless is that I'm set to lose another fifty cents an hour to a health care system that won't reflect this gain into better managed care. We will have more medically uninsured in this nation, not less, by 2012...a prediction I made last year here on my monologues. What do you suppose the Republican controlled House will do about that?

Absolutely nothing. They've no less indicated that. The continuation of channeling trillions into the same hospital and pharma enterprises is what's in store. The continuation of double digit premium increases for the foreseeable future is what's in store. It's not so bad for people like me, though, who can absorb this little $0.50/hour wage decrease and the 13% rate increase for electricity to pay for the employer's share...and for someone who will likely continue to keep his health insurance.

I should just shut up now. No sense in spending blog energy on the uninsured or those ad infinitum double digit premium increases. You, the electricity ratepayer, will absorb most of that. I'm so glad you are a captive consumer; if you choose to consume less electricty to reduce your own exposure to these rate increases, our utility will have no choice but to raise rates even more. I should just shut up now.