The Claims Denial Department at The Health Insurance Company Is Out Sick Today

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

Fiction that opens up possibilities in the real world.

It has been my contention that the most significant factor that keeps our civilization on a path towards total self-annihilation is insufficient imagination. We don’t see possibilities and even when we get a glimpse of one, our first reaction is “that will never happen,” when it should be “how can we make this work?”

The department that evaluates insurance claims was sick again. The whole department. It was Monday, and way too many people were not at their desks. They were at cafes and even wine bars, playfully drafting “notes from their doctors.”

This had been going on for some time. It was getting to be a problem for the only people who mattered—shareholders.

Oh, work hadn’t stopped. It’s just that those who worked in that department were taking time for themselves at the start of every week. The other four days, they were at their desks, approving ALL claims without exception.

Meetings were called. People were chewed out. Some were fired. Yet, the new people who were brought in behaved the same as those they replaced. This was getting out of hand.

Co-ops and Communities

Fired people weren’t forgotten. We were socializing with them on those Mondays. And the rest of the week, while we were back in our cubicles, they were working at the co-ops—producing food for themselves and others.

The fired people had the meaningful jobs, and we were just taking up space. At least that’s how it felt. But truthfully we were all working together.

Some say it all started with us, but people everywhere had grown lax with the rules. More and more people were doing what they saw as right and good. It was as if the only law they recognized was moral law.

Bosses were freaking out. Lots of people, especially the “powerful people” were losing it.

Meanwhile, we just kept doing what we were doing.

Laughing At Provocation

Media screamed, railed, threatened. So did politicians and executives. But how many times can you beat a horse and get it to move? At some point, it just stops.

We had decided to stop. We were losing our healthcare, losing our retirements, and losing our entire lives trapped inside of our soulless workplaces. It was time to stop. It was time to try something else.

Henry Ford shot at workers who rallied together, who stood up to him. So did dictators. American authorities brutalized the protesters of Occupy for shining a spotlight on the abusive exploitive nature of the American system.

But you don’t accomplish anything shooting at people who are chatting and drinking coffee at cafes. You don’t help your cause when you punish the people who you absolutely need to do the work.

This is especially true when your cruelty alienates and drives away the people you are depending on to be the replacement workers.

While the authorities panicked, we were relaxed and amused.

This is nonviolent noncooperation. This is the way that exposes the fundamental weakness of the “powerful.” Those who see themselves as powerful are 100% dependent on others, on us, to do everything for them. Their weakness is that they do nothing and we do everything.

When we stop, everything stops. Oh, not all of it. There are always some fools ready to serve the people who pose as “authorities.” But our numbers were growing and the number of fools was shrinking. Plus, the situation was so tenuous that our imperfect disobedience was more than enough to cripple the healthcare denial industry.

Spreading To Big Oil

Sometimes a trigger event is just the beginning. The awareness of the cold cruelty of health insurance companies was what set people off. But our understanding and concerns expanded.

The unprecedented yet unsurprising massive drought of 2027 put the climate top of mind. Food production everywhere, even at the co-ops was down. Oh, people had enough to eat, but they went hungry sometimes. Enough that we were truly worried and decided to do something about the climate.

We decided to end fossil fuels. As the scientists had warned us we must.

Of course, media screamed again. The problem WAS being solved, they insisted. Markets were slowly transitioning us to clean energy. We need to be patient, to wait, to trust the system.

But trust of the system had evaporated. The well-financed media experts were essentially talking to themselves and their employers. We had long moved on.

At Exxon-Mobil, at Shell, at British Petroleum, and even at The National Iranian Oil Company, and LukOil, work and oil extraction was stalled. Nobody could put a finger on it, but somehow the work wasn’t getting done. Workers were moving slowly, making mistakes, forgetting to do things.

This widespread slowdown was the event that accelerated the end of the old order. The entire civilization of abuse and exploitation was built on oil and oil was going away. What had kept foolish greedy leaders and systems in place, the belief that they were necessary and invulnerable—well, that was ended.

The food co-ops were now everywhere with broad participation. Nobody needed or cared about agribusiness. Healthcare workers had broken off from healthcare corporations. Medical care for profit was seen—accurately—as unseemly and immoral.
People didn’t need the old economy anymore. They had food and medicine and shelter. They provided all of it, for themselves and others, as they had always done. They had simply cut out the middle men.

The Relief of Surrender

The old order gave up. It wasn’t a choice. They lost. But on the human level, they were just like us and shared our mutual victory.
It was a victory for humanity, for all of us, for the planet, and for the creatures with whom we shared the Earth.

The former authorities themselves were at first upset, then disoriented and ultimately relieved. They didn’t need to keep up the impossible charade anymore. They thought the world was ending, but it was just their old flawed world. This new world was beautiful, and to their surprise, even they were welcomed into it.

What was different now? Life was still challenging. People still got sick and died. There was still violence and cruelty and other forms of stupidity, although they were sharply diminished.

People had a lot less stuff. Just the basics. This was necessary. There was no other way to quickly and sharply slash CO2 emissions except by ending production of unneeded things. So, there was no private jets or yachts, and no rich people or oligarchs.

There was less stuff all around. But we didn’t feel poor, not in the least. Because now we had time! Time that we didn’t know existed, because previously we had been wasting our lives in cubicles and on factory floors. We had been hypnotizing ourselves with screens and earbuds. We had been throwing away that brief sacred moment between birth and death.

Now life was different. Nothing was produced at the behest of a dictator or a corporation. We did everything for ourselves and for each other. We had no reason for conflict. We were having too much fun together.

We couldn’t believe how stupid we had once been. It seemed inconceivable. This was all here for us all along. Finally, we had it right.