Health Care- an introductory ramble
>> Wednesday, August 19, 2009
I just pulled up in the parking lot at the cafe I'm escaping to this morning. I planned to work on some pieces I am submitting in a couple of weeks, but my mind keeps drifting back to another topic. Drifting doesn't really do justice to the pull I feel to the subject of health care right now. My heart hurts over the situation of our nation.
On the radio, I was listening to the Rev. Jim Wallis being interviewed on the progressive talk radio show, The Stephanie Miller Show. (You should be able to listen to the interview from the website as of later today.)In his gentle way, he stressed that we need to steer this debate away from money, away from politics, and focus it back on morals. There are millions of people without health insurance in our country and people are dying every day. They are going broke. Losing their houses. Losing their livelihoods because they got sick and couldn't afford the costs of care.
How did this become a Red and Blue issue? How did health care turn into a wedge issue? How have we let politicians commandeer the issue and use it as a disguise for what, for a loud and ugly fringe of society, is fear and hatred and racism?
I watch these town hall meetings where grown men and women are screaming, yes SCREAMING, at their elected officials. Comparing our president to Hitler (which is off on way too many levels for me even to dissect here). Besides being downright rude, the displays are frightening.
And while we see the images of people freaking out and screaming and waving signs and strapping assault weapons to their bodies, the media are choosing to ignore the stories of the thousands of people lined up for free eye exams and dental work and physicals. I just heard stories this morning of people who were getting in line at 3am so they could have a doctor or nurse treat them. Another story of a person who was rushed to the ER as soon as she was seen because she was having acute kidney failure. From diabetes. A PREVENTABLE condition that went untreated because the woman had no health insurance and didn't want to go to the ER.
People are sick and dying. Adults, children, seniors. Moms and dads and siblings and neighbors and I.AM.SICK.ABOUT.IT.
I am fighting back tears as I type this, because I don't know how to do anything about it. My senator and representatives are already pushing for a public option, so contacting them would show my support but not sway opinion. I don't know what else to do but bring the issue here, to my humble little blog with 50 readers a day. I know it's not much, but I need to get the conversation going.
Please, whether you know a little or a lot about this, speak up here. Let's start talking. Be respectful and don't be mean. Those are my rules and if you break them, I'll delete your comments. ;)
And pass on the link because I have a feeling I'll be talking more and more about this in the days to come, and more voices make the conversation more interesting. (I am not ready to get into policies in this post, but believe me - I have plenty to say on that topic, too.)
I look forward to hearing from you.
Do you think every American should have health insurance? Do you see it as a moral issue? How do you suggest getting involved or making a difference?
Links:
New York Times article about the free health care clinic
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/13clinic.html
Another family's personal story, posted on Ariel Gore's blog
http://arielgore.com/2009/08/letter-from-old-school-hip-mama-mama.html
11 comments:
Please do contact your representatives, anyway, and just tell them you support both health insurance reform and the public option and respect them for standing up for their beliefs and representing you. Despite their attempts to convince us otherwise, politicians are people, too, and I am sure that a lot of the supporters of health reform are feeling worn down by the vitriolic rhetoric coming from the opposition. They may start to think that the majority really is against them, and may start to waver and think they need to compromise to please their constituents. We Americans who support regulating the insurance companies need to make ourselves heard.
I agree with you - I think this is a moral issue. 22,000 people died in 2006 (the most recent year with good census data) because they did not have health insurance. I am sure many of those people would gladly have bought insurance if they could possibly have afforded it. Something has to change.
I agree with Jaelithe - contact them anyway. They need to know that we respect and appreciate their courage. And they also need to hear that we are upset about the party in power backing away from this campaign commitment.
My mother died at 51 yrs old from breast cancer. She had no insurance, and did not get the care she needed in a timely manner. One of many stories - but very close to home.
I just went to the websites of my state senators and representatives and told them my opinion on health care reform and a public option (I support both). Thanks for the 'kick in the pants.'
Hi Ellie :-)
Couldn't resist posting on this topic.
In the Washington Times, Ezra Klein had an interesting take on Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's recent comments about health care. Klein compares our approach to providing citizens with a standard of access to food to that of health care: What Health Care Can Learn From Whole Foods. This sentence especially resonated with me: "But the existence of a vibrant institution like Whole Foods within a broader system that considers it unacceptable -- at least in theory -- for the poor to go hungry, and so subsidizes their purchase of food, does have lessons for heath-care reform."
It is unconscionable that every citizen is not guaranteed basic health care in this country and it is definitely a moral issue. A host of options, from private insurance to coops to public programs should be available to all of us.
Keep writing, girl. Good stuff!!
Amen!! My husband and I share your sentiments regarding health care reform. He is a physician assistant in an ER, and almost daily he treats people who have little or no health insurance. It's heart breaking and morally wrong. It's unfortunate that people don't realize that this could happen to anyone...all it takes is losing a job or being diagnosed with a serious illness. Of course nobody wants to think it could happen to them, but the fact is that no one is invincible.
Thank you for the great post!!
Thanks to all of you who commented so far. I started 'talking' about this on Facebook in the limited way of status updates and short comments, but I really felt the pull to bring it here.
I hope you can return to the conversation as more people comment or as I write more posts on this general topic. I consider myself progressive and politically interested/informed, but sometimes I find myself just talking and not doing. This feels like a step in the right direction somehow.
I have a story to share about a family very close to my heart. My friend's dad was a Dr. in Florida. A Dr. who throughout his entire practice, gave free treatment and care to the uninsured who came to him for help. Well, not entirely free... He was half Columbian, spoke fluent Spanish, and was often called upon by a Hispanic population. He asked for payment in the form of music for his family. And at every birthday, graduation, and sometimes just on a random night, the doorbell would ring and there would be a full mariachi band to serenade his family:)
He did very well. He had a big house on a cul-de-sac, a wife who stayed at home, and 4 children who he put through private schools.
In 1998, he was riding his bicycle in his neighborhood when a mom, who was backing out of her driveway and preoccupied with her kids, backed into him. He was able to walk away without injury and barely had any scratches. Two weeks later he got very sick, and ended up at the ER (where he had previously worked for 20 years before going into private practice) He had severe internal injuries. Multiple surgeries(and complications) resulted in 90 percent of his intestines being removed over the next several months. Eventually a leg needed to be removed too. He was in and out of the hospital for a solid year. He needed to be fed by these "bags of food" which cost $1,000 each and he needed three a day.
Their insurance company dropped them after they reached a limit. the family sold EVERYTHING they could to pay for his care--all their cars, any belongings of value, they put leans on their house (which they eventually lost). Medicaid refused to pick them up saying "he's a Dr. he has to have money somewhere."
He died in 1999. The big robust 200 pound columbian man was 112 pound when he died.
It blows my mind to think an MD STARVED to death in America. My friend's family lost EVERYTHING they ever had. Her mom at 64 years old went to work all day at a perfume counter in the mall after not working her entire married life.
This is just one story among many, but I feel very strongly that we need to be sharing more of these stories because they CAN and DO happen to absolutely anyone.
Agh. Alicia, that story is horrible. I have to believe that if everyone could hear these stories that minds would be changed....
In the interests of full disclosure let me start by saying that I'm "Boy Crazy's" father. One of the respondents to your face book health care discussion said that she and her husband were self employed and bought insurance for $500 dollars per month, thinking it was a pretty good deal. I am guessing that her family is young and healthy. Let me tell you my story.
I own, with two of my brothers, a small business. We always have provided an insurance option for our employees, usually paying half or more of the premium. There would be 4-8 employees on it at any one time. As we got older it became obvious that we were no longer such good risks and 10 or 15 years ago the premiums started to increase at 10% to 20% per year until our little business could no longer be profitable while still providing insurance, even for the owners. We kept cutting back on coverage and raising the deductibles but were still faced with $15,000 per year per family premiums.(In 1993 61% of small business provided health insurance for their employees. today 38% do. Between 2000 and the start of the recession in 2007 real wages did not increase but the cost of employment to business increased by 25%, all going to benefits. Health care costs need to be brought under control, a major impetus for reform.)
So we dropped it and now my wife and I purchase our own individual policies, each with $4,000 deductibles and plenty of exclusions. Just 2 more years to Medicare and I get government run health care. In the mean time my right hand often goes numb which I have self diagnosed as carpel tunnel. If I go in now I will have to pay it all because my insurance only kicks in if I'm hospitalized more than 24 hours. Did I mention that I was forced to change doctors by the insurance company?
I have no doubt that people with little or no insurance do the same as I am doing, ignoring a health concern, often much more serious than mine. We all know that the best way to fight cancer is early detection, but with no insurance that is not going to happen.
I also talked to someone this week whose wife recently died from cancer. They thought they had good insurance but exceeded the maximum on their policy. The insurance company would no longer pay for her chemo. They ended up selling their nice house and now he lives in a little apartment. Many others go bankrupt.
I'm not smart enough to know all the answers but I know that the status quo will ruin us. I hope Obama has the guts to hold the line on the public option, but I'm disappointed in his leadership on this issue.
Thanks for providing this forum.
Dad
Thanks for speaking up here, Dad, and being willing to learn how to navigate the blog comment world. :) I love you.
Thanks for pointing me here and to all these sad, vivid illustrations of the problem.
It's so easy for the haves to dismiss the have-nots.
But what they don't realize is, just how easy it is to become the very person you're dismissing these days. We're all just one freak accident away.
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