Bureaucrats: Love Them or Leave Them

The anti health care reform lobbyists, and general opposition, often scream “Washington bureaucrats are going to run our health care!” Let’s consider that statement:

Who would you rather have making health policy decisions for you: a Washington democratically elected representative, or a corporate bureaucrat who literally fights against people’s health care needs for a living?

Bureaucrat has been given a negative connotation from Conservative linguistic magicians wishing to diminish the role of government in our lives. Unfortunately for them there are plenty of employees who know they are bureaucrats and proud of their work. If bureaucrats are to be defined as policy makers, than the corporate bureaucrats of private for profit insurance companies should be our worse nightmare. They are the bureaucrats that the Conservatives define so derogatorily. They are traditionally the health policy micro managers, the leaders of corporate monopolistic clusters with impenetrable walls around them. We should not favor them over government democratic control. Bureaucrats don’t make most decisions in Washington D.C., they are usually the ones carrying out decisions. The bureaucrats are the paper pushers, the management, and the middle management that work the greasy gears of our government. They are the pen pushers, the administrators, members of a hierarchy of control, or workers of any organized group. Very few bureaucrats are policy makers, just policy followers.

The decisions are largely in the hands of our representatives, the elected ones, the accountable ones, the ones who can get thrown out on their keesters by voters. Again I implore; when it comes to health care policy, we should not favor corporate executives over government, democratic control.

Try throwing out a corporate executive who decided to call your life saving treatment “experimental,” and save a bundle for his insurance company. Try holding a private industry accountable; it doesn’t happen, the people can not move corporations. In the end it always takes the intervention of one or more elected representatives. Don’t take my word for it; try even phoning the office of one of these unaccountable insurance company executives.