Starved for enchantment

I loved Abby McClosky’s bit on Enchantment this Wednesday (“A case for child-like wonder in a grown-up world”). I so agree with her that our generation is starved for it. The hangover from the last 200 years of scientific materialism lingers.

I suspect that many are unaware that in the last 10 to 20 years science has become far less quarrelsome when it comes to the idea of transcendence. In fact, many of today’s scientists have become receptive to it. One of my favorite examples of this stems from a G.K. Chesterton quote. In his book “The Everlasting Man” (1925), he poses the question; “Suppose somebody in a story says, Pluck this flower and a princess will die in a castle across the sea.” He goes on to explore what we might make of it. He supposes that we would almost certainly say something like, “What!? What could possibly be the connection?” But then why do so many of us find such fairy-tale ideas so appealing? Why do we long for enchantment?

Well, in the last 10 years or so scientists have been talking about a field of study they are referring to as Entanglement. It acknowledges that two seemingly unconnected events can influence one another even at vast distances instantaneously. Apparently, such cause-and-effect phenomona are operating outside of conventional physics, ie. transcendently.

Similar mysteries have been popping up all over the place in studies being done in cosmology, brain science and human consciousness, ESP, Near Death Experience, clarvoyance, evolution and the like. It is becoming ever more plausible to believe that we may, in fact, be living in the enchanted forest.

G.J. Mayer, Lino Lakes

Empowering the insider game

Somehow the St. Paul DFL determined it was appropriate to endorse a candidate in a snap election for state representative in District 64A. The election was called because Kaohly Her left the seat vacant when she was elected mayor. We have been told that a mere 57 delegates were at the endorsing convention.  The endorsed candidate benefited from the DFL voter list and the supposed credibility of the endorsement. Voters who didn’t have the bandwidth to do their own research trusted that the DFL candidate was the best choice.

However, the endorsement undermined all the other candidates who were doing the valuable work of talking to neighbors.

A DFL endorsement with no associated caucus is an undemocratic and inappropriate process, using delegates from last year elected for other purposes. The DFL should not hold an endorsing convention in these circumstances. The 4,500 people who voted in the primary are a much broader representation of the people in District 64A.

No wonder the St. Paul DFL is having trouble getting people to volunteer. By giving credence to such a flawed endorsement, we are empowering the political insider game that has turned off so many of us and kept us from being involved in the St. Paul DFL.

Don Arnosti, St. Paul

Sainted

I had a medical emergency Sunday December 21 and went to St. John’s Emergency room, later to Short Stay Observation. Everyone from Roseville Fire, Allina ambulance and St John’s were great.  I wish to nominate them for Sainted.

David Johnson, Roseville

Reward care-giving, not paper-shuffling

Health-care costs in America keep rising, and much of the blame lies with structural problems made worse — not solved — by the Affordable Care Act and today’s insurance industry. What was sold as “reform” expanded bureaucracy, distorted risk pools, and accelerated the cost spiral that families now face.

A major issue is the way the ACA reshaped insurance risk pools. Insurance only works when enough people are paying in to balance those who use the most care. Yet after the ACA expansions, a large share of the newly added participants were high-cost users who contributed little or nothing toward the true price of their care. Today, according to national expenditure data, roughly 4.6 percent of Americans account for 50 percent of all health-care spending. When this many high-cost users are added to the pool without corresponding contributions, premiums and deductibles rise for everyone else.

Then there’s the administrative machinery itself. The United States now spends an enormous share of its health-care dollars on billing, coding, claim processing, prior authorizations, and compliance — work that adds complexity but not care. Estimates place billing- and insurance-related administrative costs at roughly $500 billion per year nationwide. That includes millions of employees inside insurance companies and millions more inside hospitals and clinics who spend their days feeding data into that system. These layers do not diagnose, treat or heal. They exist to process paperwork, delay approvals, and negotiate payments — and every layer adds cost.

We see the effects on every medical bill. A procedure may be “billed” at a high number, then heavily written off, and finally paid at a negotiated amount that bears little resemblance to the real cost. A $12,000 billed charge may turn into a $3,500 payment, even though the same procedure might cost a cash-pay patient around $1,800. This confusing three-step dance— billed, write-off, paid — does not help patients. It obscures prices and shields the system from accountability.

Follow the dollars and the picture becomes even clearer. The U.S. now spends $4.9 trillion per year on health care — about $14,570 per person. Yet multiple independent analyses show that a very large share of that total never reaches the doctors, nurses and facilities delivering actual care. A significant portion is absorbed by administrative overhead, insurance bureaucracy and compliance structures created by federal rules and industry practices. In other words, a substantial part of our health-care spending is not care at all.

In this writer’s opinion, the only realistic way to reduce costs is to remove unnecessary work. Shrink the administrative empires, simplify the rules, and stop forcing providers to employ entire teams whose job is to navigate insurance complexity. The health-care system should reward people who deliver care — not people who shuffle paper.

If America wants affordable health care, we first must stop paying for a system built to serve itself instead of the patient.

The solution will require restructuring, loss of jobs and a return to competition.

Scott Nintzel, White Bear Township

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