REAL LIFE EXAMPLE
Money vs. Moneyless Society




Introduction

Our present profit and money based economic system requires that profit be made before any good or service will be dispensed. For example, your personal circumstances could deteriorate such that you find yourself living in a cardboard box, and the owners of apartment houses and new housing complexes may have large stocks of empty housing available, but they won't give you a house or apartment unless you give them money, so they can generate a profit from your need. This obsessive requirement for profit exists no matter the kind of product or service you need or want. One of the many problems this arrangement causes is, it introduces wave upon wave of mind-numbing complexity into every area of our lives, continuously degrading our peace of mind and quality of life.

This page describe one such wave, a real-life situation which occurred as I began arranging the MRI examination one of my doctors, a specialist, prescribed for me for a back condition. Note the number of steps required to secure the test, contrasted afterward with the number steps that would be required to secure the same test in a cooperative society. The procurement of health care today is often such a confusing, exasperating, depressing, and even tragic endeavor, that this example is relevant and appropriate. I have changed names of people and facilities, and telephone numbers, to maintain privacy.

(Further, please note that in addition to the MRI, my doctor, a physiatrist, also prescribed physical therapy for my back condition. However, I won't bore you with a comparative analysis of the steps required to arrange that treatment. Why not? Because my HMO doesn't even cover it!)

  1. I began by calling St. Basil hospital in Sometown, N.Y. to determine their insurance requirements, and perhaps even schedule the appointment. I spoke with Marlene, in the Ambulatory Center, which handles St. Basil outpatient MRI procedures. This phone call lasted about ten minutes.
  2. I have to locate a fax machine, and drive to its location to use it, or arrange for the fax transmission with someone I know who has such a machine.
  3. Once located, I have to execute a fax of the MRI prescription to the Ambulatory Center, ATTENTION MRI, at 973-000-0000, so they can see what specific kind of MRI was prescribed (They seem most interested in whether the test was ordered "with contrast" or not. Alternatively, I can call the doctor myself to obtain this information, and apprise the Center over the telephone at the time I schedule the appointment. They cannot schedule the appointment until they know what kind of MRI was ordered).
  4. I have to call (or visit) my primary care provider (PCP) to secure a referral for the test, and request he execute his own required steps, listed below.
  5. Last (I hope), I have to call St. Basil back to actually schedule the test.

(Note that I may have to execute a sixth step:  calling my PCP back to ensure he executed his three steps, before I call St. Basil to schedule my appointment.)

Five steps are required before I can take this test!

Five steps are presently required to arrange this test, to satisfy the earnings requirements of the owners of the HMO company, and the insurance companie(s) it represents. In stark contrast, here are the TWO steps that would be required if I was arranging for the MRI in a cooperative society:

  1. As above:  Call St. Basil hospital in Sometown, N.Y. to schedule the test, as above.
  2. As above:  Fax the MRI prescription to the Ambulatory Center, ATTENTION MRI, at 973-000-0000, so they can see what specific kind of MRI was prescribed (they seem most interested in whether the test was ordered "with contrast" or not. Alternatively, I can call the doctor myself to obtain this information, and apprise the Center over the telephone at the time I schedule the appointment. They cannot schedule the appointment until they know what kind of MRI was ordered).

(Note that if my prescription were more clear, or perhaps just more knowledgeably understood by the individual setting appointments, the step of faxing it for clarification would have been unnecessary, making for a total of four steps under our present system--and ONE step under a Cooperative Society!)

That's five steps under our present profit-based society, versus two steps under a cooperative society. As you may have noticed, the steps required under the latter kind of society are the natural steps you would expect when scheduling a medical test. All the extra steps presently required pertain directly to ensuring the medical companies maximize their profit. Once you take profit and money out of the picture, there is no longer anything to maximize and the extra steps vanish!

Actually, I'd like to pose a question, reflecting the contention that life under a cooperative society would probably be even better than already suggested here, so far:  If I was living in a cooperative society, with its greatly reduced levels of both physical and psychological stress, and far greater emphasis on safety and prevention, would I have even suffered an injury or trauma to my back in the first place? If not, we can reduce the number of steps required to arrange my MRI from two, to zero, since I would need no MRI! This would mean more time in my life to just--live!


The Doctor Becomes A Healer Again

My Primary Care Physician is required to dance to the tune of the profit motive, also. Here are the three extra steps he must execute so I can receive my MRI:

  1. He must fax my referral to the Ambulatory Center at 973-000-0000 (or I must drive to his office to pick it up, an extra step for me, then bring it with me at the time of appointment).
  2. He must then call a company called National Imaging Associates at 888-000-0000 to obtain authorization (a "precert") for me to receive the test.
  3. Then, he has to call in the precert number to St. Basil at 973-000-0000.

Take these extra steps and multiply them by the patient base of this doctor, and you see the colossal extra workload he must suffer under--when does he have time to be a healer? No wonder patients are shuttled in and out of the doctor's office so quickly, like so many sausages rolling off the assembly line. When was the last time you didn't feel time pressure while visiting with a doctor? Remove the three extraneous steps above, and those like them, and the physician can move closer to his proper role as healer. More time to see you. More time to do research, and keep current in his specialty. It all adds up to a better doctor, a better medical system, and a healthier, happier, (and more serene), you.


You

Examine your own life and affairs. Pick one or two problems in your life, and think about how much easier they would be to solve if you suddenly found that money was no longer required to obtain the goods or services needed for their resolution (of course, not all of the problems of life are resolved by buying goods or services, but many or most are). You will probably quickly realize that whatever problems you are struggling with in each situation would improve dramatically, if not disappear completely, under such a system! And, like my back injury, your problems might not have occurred in the first place if you already lived in a society where goods and services were free, and the people around you were guided in their behavior by love!

Such is the power of a Cooperative Society, the greatest advance in human social organization ever conceived!




~ Advocating Economic & Personal Change ~
One Human Family