While you wouldn't think the health insurance reform debate ventures into green territory, a current experience of mine does exactly that.
• My health insurance company took away my choice of pharmacy. I usually go to a locally owned chain, but for one particular drug I need, my insurance made me choose between two national mail order pharmacies. This is being done for excellence in service and for your convenience, the letter read.
In reality I tried both companies -- one was incompetent and the other one involved a lengthy intake interview. Like they think they're my doctor. And they'll be calling me every month when I need a refill for another friendly chat. Yessss, much more excellent and convenient. With my regular, local pharmacy (which is located right down the street) I can call an automated refill line and be done in less than a minute.
• Of course the real reason my insurance has taken away my choice is because it saves money, i.e. it allows them to make more money (because it is one of the Blues, they put the money into their ginormous asset reserve and give their executives massive salaries).
• The green connection involves the way the mail order pharmacies send me my prescription: with massive amounts of styrofoam packaging. It has to be refrigerated, so what UPS drops on my porch is a massive box containing a ginormous styrofoam vault as well as gel cold packs.
• I get to throw all that packaging away. More precisely, I pay to throw it away, either via my local municipal trash pickup or by transporting it 23 miles to Ikea.
It's a clear, compelling example of The Tragedy of the Commons. My insurance company is saving money, savings physically represented by petroleum-based material that ends up in the landfill. The municipal recycling program doesn't take styrofoam, and the mail-order pharmacies don't offer the styrofoam mailback program.
