By Ruth Hull

Want health care in America? You may find it easier and faster to buy a cemetery plot and line up an undertaker. Putting a brave front on the Obamacare fiasco, Dave Jones pointed out that America has the worst health care in the industrialized world.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is running for re-election this year. But he's got a problem. If too many Californian's die before being able to navigate the Obamcare sign-up game, their relatives might not be voting for incumbents in November.

Dave would have preferred to implement an actual health care plan, like the Kucinich/Conyers single-payer, not-for-profit plan that would have kicked the health care insurance companies out of the U.S. of A Instead, Jones got stuck with the Republican give-insurance-executives-your-life-savings-plan put forth by two governors (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mitt Romney) and by former tobacco-spokesperson and Presidential candidate Bob Dole and implemented by Wall Street “yes” man Barack Obama. Is anyone here still calling Obama a Democrat? The term seems to have evolved over the years.

At the League of Women Voters’ luncheon on January 15, the day thousands or perhaps millions of Californians may have lost their health care until March or maybe forever, Dave pointed out that America is last in the industrialized world in preventing infant mortality, last in the industrialized world in health care for deadly diseases, below other industrialized nations in life-expectancy but first in the highest cost of health care. For a long time, Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers have been telling the world why this is the case. It’s called a sell-out to the insurance industry. Why get health care when you can give your life savings to some poor insurance company executive so he can take a few more cruises with your health care money? You didn't really want that operation, did you?

As the rich fat cats at Healthnet and Kaiser get richer, you could die waiting to be allowed to pay premiums under Obamacare.

In December, millions of Americans signed up in a timely fashion for Obamacare. Many of these millions actually selected a health care program. However, what they may not have realized is that, to be covered, they had to locate an inaccessible member ID number to pay the premiums by January 15th or they would not be covered before March. No number, no coverage.

It’s after January 15. If you didn’t have that member ID number in time, there are still a few undertakers eager for your business and much more accessible than that illusive number. A couple of insurers (Anthem and Kaiser) have extended the deadline at the last minute but don't count on those numbers to arrive by the new deadline. If you signed up for Blue Shield or one of the other plans you didn't really want insurance anyway, did you?

California has a special line. It is 1-800-300-1506. Most of the time, people calling it get the following message in English and then Spanish: We are experiencing a high caller volume. Visit our website, http://www.coveredca.com Goodbye. Click. If you are one of the lucky ones to get put on hold rather than receiving a fast good bye, you can wait an hour to two-and-a-half. Then there is an internal ring as if some fake person is trying to pick up the phone and then click. The website started working around January 15th but not enough to provide authorization for health care. People with a Masters in IT have had trouble signing up through that site. But you can ask for help online. If you do so, there is someone called an Assister who will send you a nice friendly email. Unfortunately the Assister doesn’t have the power or authority to do much of anything — besides sympathize with your plight of needing health care coverage and not being able to get the required ID number to pay your premiums. Dave and others at his office have some standardized responses to the difficulty or rather impossibility Californians are having in attempting to get through to the Covered California 800 number. They note the high caller volume, the same as the recording. People calling it are wondering if there are actually any people at the other end or if it’s just a shaggy dog phone number to pacify the masses. Last week and this week, I had various people call that number almost non-stop with none getting through. My current suspicion is that there’s nobody home on that line though I’m open to hearing of real live person actually getting through.

Dave does seem to care though. He has offered his office’s 800 numbers. 1-800-927-4357. That number gets answered. Like the Assister, the people at Dave’s office are really nice and sympathetic but aren’t in a position to provide any actual assistance.

Now imagine that you are in need of critical care. Suppose you collapse from a heart attack or get run over by a car on January 16th, 2014. Gee, this might have just happened to you. Well, think of your family losing its home if you get treated in a hospital. Can you really be that selfish? If you wish a list of mortuaries, here’s link to a Google page.

You may need a burial plot too.

I have now provided you with more more information on resources for your health care needs than Barack Obama or what is available from the Covered California phone line. Next Presidential election, you might want to consider backing the unelectable guy who doesn't have ties to the insurance industry.

I will say something good about Obamacare. A lot of people could not get insurance before this year and the premiums are reasonable compared to the $3500 or at-no-price that some uninsurable people were quoted prior to this year. Being a woman used to be classified as a pre-existing condition that caused women to pay ridiculously high rates for coverage.

California, in particular, has worked hard to make sure everyone is insurable. Dave Jones has actually sponsored bills and worked to make sure that women don’t have to pay more for health care coverage than men and that the old don’t pay more than the young. Now, everyone pays the same. Dave is also pushing a November ballot proposition that will prevent insurance companies from raising the rates to astronomical proportions — something allowed by Barack Obama under the federal plan.

THE INSURANCE COMPANIES MATTER MORE THAN YOU

California’s Insurance Department is tied to a problem that goes far beyond health care. Have you wondered why violent crimes are not prosecuted in your neighborhood? The answer goes to the heart of the corruption that led to Obamacare. The answer: the insurance industry. This gang that has snagged much of your life’s earnings has priority over the safety and protection of the public.

While Dave Jones does not like the fact that prosecutors like Orange County’s Tony Rackauckas have failed to protect the safety of the public, Dave’s office has given large grants to district attorneys, causing them to orient their focus off of the public welfare and onto insurance crimes. Dave says Tony’s office has received over a million dollars in grant money. That’s quite an incentive to ignore murders and robberies while prosecuting doctors who literally do nothing illegal.

Last winter, I witnessed the trial of a doctor who received no payments from an insurance company but was prosecuted for bad record-keeping by one of the top prosecutors in Tony’s office. The crime was that the doctor, an immigrant who barely spoke English, kept minimal records. The patient, on his own, submitted the bill twice to the insurance company. While not prosecuting the patient who double-billed the insurance company, Tony’s office prosecuted the doctor. All this happened while Tony refused to prosecute a rapist the Tustin police were certain had repeatedly orally and anally raped his eight-year-old daughter and while Tony blocked a search warrant for a thousand or more pornographic pictures the father had uploaded of the little girl. Which is worse, bad record keeping by a doctor who doesn’t get a penny of insurance money or protecting children from rape and violence? Maybe Dave should rethink those insurance grants. Maybe the voters of Orange County should vote their own interests in the 2014 district attorney’s election. The nation has sold out to the insurance industry — from health care to prosecutions. People and children are bottom rung.

The nation is in last place in the industrialized world in health care because of the failure of our leaders to stand with the people against the insurance industry. Maybe it’s time the people stopped supporting politicians who are sending them to an early grave. If people stood up and refused to vote for the political pawns of their greatest enemies, the people might live a longer.