This is a truly absurd line from Uwe. E. Reinhardt in his New York Times blog post, but I think it does a great job of capturing what is so wrong with the health care debate in this country.

The American health insurance system now is structured as a paradise for clever adolescents, inviting gaming of many sorts that makes sensible health policy almost impossible. It is time to move away from such a system.

Apparently we have insanely different definitions of “paradise” when it comes to health care. My idea of paradise, and I can only assume it is the same as most young people right now struggling with record high employment, would be the guarantee that if I get sick I wouldn’t need to worry it could bankrupt me. The knowledge that I would never need to choose between buying groceries or buying medicine. The idea that if sick I wouldn’t need to spend my time in the hospital arguing with an insurance company.

Looking at international comparisons this basic level of health care security could be provided relatively cheaply directly by the government.

According to Reinhardt, “paradise” comes for the joy young people feel trying to decide whether to save their limited income or buy incredibly overpriced insurance from nefariously behaving industry. Paradise is maybe saving a thousand dollars to use to pay rent but risking medical bankruptcy, because either they can’t afford or refuse to buy a product that is a rip off. In Reinhardt’s mind there is nothing the cool kids enjoy more than taking risks by inventing new ways to game the extremely complex health insurance system.

The reason we don’t have sensible health care policy in this country has nothing to do with a bunch of super clever young working class adults coming up with complex life plans to game the system. The reason we don’t have sensible policies is because our for-profit health care system is deeply corrupt and health care companies use huge lobbying operations to further corrupt our political system. We have a trillion dollar industry that spends billions on lobbying to protect their profits.

Our government refuses to implement cost controls even on the life saving drugs it gives companies exclusive monopolies over. Our government not only lets the industry rip off sick people, it gives them more power to do it.

Besides being absurd, what makes this line so terribly is that people like Reinhardt are considered on the left wing of the “acceptable” health care debate in this country. Maybe if the people actually on the left, who advocate real proven solutions, weren’t so actively marginalized we could possible make some progress.