notes on a phone conversation

I just got off the phone with an "Owner-Administrator" of a Health Care Company.
These are companies who will send nurses and other people to the home of an elderly person.
They are paid by Medicare.

Let's be clear. When my mother and father were working, they paid into a fund. The purpose of that fund was to pay for the care they would need when they got old. So, nothing here is free.

At any rate, the conversation had some peculiarities. The lady remarked in passing that she had been a nurse for thirty years, and that her ability to sympathize enlarged when her own father became ill.

I guess that was supposed to be something like the emotional equivalent of a Certificate of Competence.

She also said that nurses tend to be bossy, but that when it is your own parent you are dealing with things are not so easy.

But, the bottom line is that the lady is in business for herself. She is an "owner-administrator".
"Owner" means she gets more of the profits than the people working for her. "Adminstrator" means that she is a boss.

And, I suppose (though I do not know) that she will say something like this: after working as a nurse for thirty years I am now qualified to oversee other nurse's and--also, why not?--I should get more money than them.

The problem is that the profit motive can separate from the care providing motive.

This happens all the time when Insurance Companies try to decide which medicines a patient can have.

I do not have at my finger tips and example involving this lady, but when I think of one, I will write about it here....

However, since I had the benefit of overhearing this very same Owner-Administrator's conversation with my mother (that is to say, I heard my mother's words)--I do have a further insight.

The Owner Administrator was, it seems, somewhat puzzled or unhappy with my mother's words. If I were to sum it up, I would say that my mother's complaint was this: I am not being treated fairly by the health care system. I am not getting the help I deserve. (And, indeed, since my husband and I worked and paid into the system, it is a question of getting what I paid for...)

Somehow, this was not something which the Owner Adminstrator wanted to hear. She did not want to hear the truth that there is something unfair here.

What sort of society is it which would like to ban discussions of fairness or justice?

Here's an analogy: I give you a menu and you can choose only what's on the menu. You are not allowed to complain about the menu itself.

But we already knew that the US health care system is not a good one....However, to have people rubbing your face in that fact every day is unpleasant. And even more unpleasant is to see your elderly parents suffering....