Monday, October 26, 2009

Hippos Under the Blanket

Amid all of the hoopla and controversy about health insurance and the “public option”, ostensibly to be offered by the federal government as an option to private insurance, this is the first time I’ve seen the below statement, included almost as an afterthought midway through this article from the Washington Post: Prognosis improves for public insurance

"The public option would effectively be just another insurance plan offered on the open market. It would likely be administered by a private insurance provider, charging premiums and copayments like any other policy."

Interesting. But why would that particular statement jump out at me? Because I’ve seen it before, in concept if not in verbatim script:

Excerpt from What So Proudly We Hailed”:
“ . . . they never changed the infrastructure of the private system already in place. They “ran” the program on the surface, but the real meat & potatoes of the whole thing was still run by the insurance companies, those 3rd party middlemen who added no value at all and did nothing except transfer money from here to there and grow rich in the process.

The only difference was that now they had more customers, which, the last time anybody at an insurance company checked, wasn’t a bad thing. More customers meant more money, and all the healthcare companies had to do to get those customers (and the money that came with them) was to allow the state government offices to have access to patient accounts and medical records. No harm in that; they were all working together after all.

So when the program went federal, all that really happened was that instead of the health insurance companies working with state governments, they started working with the feds instead. It was a different colored blanket, but the hippos wrestling underneath hadn’t changed. They’d just gotten fatter.”

Just dumb luck? Apparently I'm either very dumb or very lucky, because this isn't the first time reality has followed the fictional words I penned two years ago. I always thought the conclusion to What So Proudly We Hailed was beyond the realm of any real possibility, but as we continue to head in that direction, I'll admit that I'm not so sure anymore.

5 comments:

Tony Dye said...

Blaine, it's scary much of what you wrote in "What so Proudly..." has come to pass. I think I'm ready to make a bulk purchase of your books and give them to a lot of people! Related curiosity: were you a Larry Burkett fan? Your books remind me a lot of his writing.

Blaine Staat said...

I'm only familiar with Larry Burkett from his money management books. I haven't read anything else from him. Maybe I should!

Unknown said...

If I had written the book, I think I would be very nervous and very concerned at this point. I READ it and I am nervous and concerned!

You should write another book, and then another. My hope is that you will write something that maybe will not cause me to be so nervous and concerned. Finding Liberty is great, and I enjoy the He said She said articles that you and Catherine do, but I'd still like to encourage you to write another novel.

And out of just needing something like this, could it be uplifting and encouraging and quotable for those reasons? Much as I do quote from What So Proudly We Hailed, it is never because of anything GOOD thing I have read in the paper or have heard on the news. I refer to it because of the many times it parallels things that are of concern in the news.

Blaine, don't you get creeped out sometimes when you look at news on the internet and keep seeing bits of your book?

BRRRRrrrrrr! Cold shiver time! I think maybe God has your ear. Is He telling you other things?

Kimber

Blaine Staat said...

Yes, it does creep me out a little, but it also makes me uneasy because I'm no prophet; and yet even I seem to be able to guess correctly more often than not.

I do have an idea for another novel but I haven't started it yet. It deals with a very simple - but mind blowing - scientific theory that seems so absolutely obvious that it would have to be true, but if it is, it could change everything we think we know about history and Biblical events.

It would probably be deemed a little heretical if/when I write it becuase it would change how we look at the Bible. But the great thing is that not only would it not contradict anything in the Bible, it would scientifically destroy the myth of evolution once and for all.

Kimberline said...

Well, winter is coming. What a great time to write a new novel! It sounds like a good read, plot-wise. I'll buy a copy. See, you have already sold one.

I am sure Mrs. Cat must be so proud of you!

As far as having a gift of prophecy...You shouldn't be so quick to say you do not have it. Many times our Biblical examples were unsure that they had the gifts they had been given. Many tried to deny those giftings or give them back. Because you are humble about it, I would think you are more likely gifted that way than not.

Having a gift for prophecy does not have to be an ability of foretelling huge catastrophes or of coming judgments. I think it can also simply be the understanding of shadows of things to come and sometimes can be an ability to anticipate changes in the common things.

God gifts all of us uniquely. I think those who genuinely do have the gift of prophecy are the first to say they do not. It is the ones who loudly claim they do have it that we should be wary of!

Just my 2 cents worth......