America Heal Thyself IV

Final Part

People over Money 

This is the last post of four dealing with healthcare in America.  Before commencing I should point out some important facts about myself to provide perspective.  I’ve always had health insurance through an employer and still do.  I’ve never complained about the premiums or copays.  I would not flinch if my rates or taxes were increased to provide healthcare for each and every citizen.  There are always personal sacrifices that we can make for the good of all.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

From The Declaration of Independence.

Of the thirty-three developed nations, thirty two have universal healthcare.  The lone exception is the United States.  How could that be?  In 1776, when America was just a concept a group of patriots signed a document that established as unalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Integral to two of those rights, life and the pursuit of happiness is good health; or at the very least the opportunity for good health. And yet we find ourselves mired in a cantankerous debate over whether we should have universal health care anchored by a robust government system.  If we were a truly civilized society, we would have long ago figured out how to accomplish this. 

Nearly 50 years ago America experienced a similar debate about healthcare.  It was a time when the elderly were tied to their children for survival.  There was no healthcare system in place for the elderly to turn to.  In 1959, George Reedy, the man who 5 years later would become Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary summed up the status of America’s elderly; “Somehow the problem must be dramatized in some way so that Americans will know that the problem of the aging amounts to a collective responsibility.  America is no longer a nation in which grandmother and grandfather can spend their declining years in a log cabin doing odd jobs and taking care of the grandchildren.” Johnson took on the challenge and in 1965, Medicare became a reality.  Oh there was a hue and cry and the alarm of creeping socialism.  Said Ronald Reagan; “If you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”  Well I’m closing in on the sunset years and I still don’t have a portrait of Joe Stalin on the wall and contrary to Reagan’s dire warning Medicare was actually liberating.  America isn’t bound by the shackles of despotic Socialism but the elderly are no longer tied to their children.  They live longer more productive lives on their own, assured that their medical needs are taken care of. Young families no longer have to wonder what to do with the grandparents when planning the family vacation.  They no longer have to choose between saving for their children’s college education and keeping granny healthy.

Once again we’re in a healthcare debate; this time over universal coverage.  We’re told by conservative pundits that if it’s a government program, it’s bound to fail.  Nothing that the government does ever turns out right.  These are words that come from the self-same individuals who will regale us with the greatness of America; a nation that can accomplish whatever it sets its collective mind to. The nation that sponsored the exploration and opening of the West in the 19^th century, facilitated the carving of a canal in Panama, spearheaded the downfall of Axis tyranny, built the Federal Highway System, funded science research that is second to none, possesses the most powerful military ever known, landed a man on the moon and for decades operated a successful space shuttle.  We did all of these things yet we can’t find a way to make healthcare for everyone a reality? When it’s convenient to make their case, the Palin’s and Limbuagh’s will always decry the incompetence of American government.

At the heart of the debate is money; the rising costs of healthcare; an aging population putting pressure on funding and medical resources; the impact on the deficit.  We’ve been told that to have government sponsored healthcare is not sustainable; that it’s impossible.  I have to believe that finding the means to fund universal healthcare is possible.  This country spends mountains of money on programs that nobody bats an eyelash over.  Consider a military budget that dwarfs the rest of the world.  Our two “potential military opponents” Russia and China have combined military budgets of 142.5 billion dollars a figure that is dwarfed by our budget of 739.3 billion dollars.  And while Mitt Romney is ready to add another two trillion dollars to the defense budget he finds that we can’t afford medical care for the citizenry. 

Investing in the health of Americans is a positive investment but if you're looking for investments to fume over there are plenty out there.  How about Pakistan?  Why did we never have a contentious national argument over doling out some 20 billion dollars to Pakistan? Over the last 10 years we poured money into a nation that not only gave aid and comfort to insurgents fighting against us in the Afghan war, it pretended not to notice a tall Arab terrorist hooked to a dialysis machine living next door to their military academy; and then they were outraged when we killed the man.  But Pakistan was Bin Laden’s friend years before he was on our radar.  That was a time when the Soviets had left Afghanistan and we poured countless millions and more millions into Pakistan while it supported Bin Laden and the precursors to the Taliban. Where was the outrage over giving money to a nation playing us for fools?  We can support a rogue nation that works against our own interests but we’re pennywise and pound foolish with healthcare for our own.    

Over the course of three posts, I’ve not discussed the debate over money.  I’ve not delved into the minutiae over the funding of universal healthcare and I certainly won’t begin here.  That’s because at its very core it is not a money issue, it is a moral issue.  And yet the two, money and morality, have become tragically intertwined.  We’ve come to a hell of a situation in which people cannot afford to get sick. Consider that:

     Crushing hospital and medical bills are the cause of most personal bankruptcies. The results of a 2007 study by the American Medical Association states: Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income. The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance. Using identical definitions in 2001 and 2007, the share of bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6%. In logistic regression analysis controlling for demographic factors, the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause was 2.38-fold higher in 2007 than in 2001. The study also found that; The share of bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 50% between 2001 and 2007.

      People put off medical care until such time that they can afford it. US News reported that a woman in New Jersey had a 51 pound tumor removed.  The tumor was not only malignant; it was putting pressure on her interior vena cava which returns blood to the heart.  The tumor grew to its appalling size not because the woman was obese and didn’t know it was there or because she was chronically stupid.  No she was forced to wait until Medicare kicked in before she could have the required surgery. What would have happened to her if she were not on the cusp of Medicare?

     
And then there are those not as lucky as the New Jersey woman; the ones that simply die; something that Mitt Romney assures us doesn’t happen; “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”  Well according to a Harvard Medical School study, some 45000 people a year die due to lack of medical insurance.  The study also found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess death rate found in 1993.

     I imagine that someone could try to make the argument that the study is flawed; the numbers inflated.  Okay let’s grant that the numbers are inflated. From what? 35,000?  20,000?  10,000?  Is there a point where the figure becomes acceptable? If there is then please go to the comments section and fill in the blank.
 

Beware the sanctimonious hypocrites; the so called God fearing folks, Huckabee, Santorum and their apostles, the Tea Party.  Phony Christians and blustering humbugs; they claim a franchise on the defense of life and bloviate about the moral decay of America while their actions and policies expose their meanness and cruelty caring not one fig for a family on the edge of poverty that suffers a parent with untreated high blood pressure or a child with autism and no recourse but to simply soldier on.  It doesn’t touch the souls of these "Christian soldiers" that over 35% of uninsured children go a year or more without seeing a doctor. Carrying a Bible in one hand and a bludgeon in the other their twisted creed distorts Christian charity as creeping Socialism.  An inbreeding of right wing ideology, tub thumping evangelical Protestantism and unbridled paranoia seeks to marginalize “the least of these” as Christ called them.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

The Book of Matthew; Chapter 25; 41 – 45.

In my first post on healthcare I quoted a man’s response to an article on healthcare. He said; “if u want insurance buy it, if not pay Cash..if not, go Die..”  As loathsome as I find that sentiment I have to say that I’ve more respect for this fellow than those that choose to remain behind a veil. 

I’ve long ago grown weary of the whiners on social media bitching about Obamacare and how its going to raise their insurance rates and lighten their bank accounts.  Tough shit. I have someone close to me with type 1 diabetes.  She did nothing wrong except sit by while her pancreas decided to short circuit.  I’ve a wife who’s gone toe to toe with cancer three times, won each time and shown more courage and character than some pudknocker sniveling over having to cut back on his Coors ration because my wife deserves coverage as much as he does.  I’ve a friend with a child who has a heart condition.  I’ve another friend with a quirky thyroid that requires medication.  One with a history of spinal surgeries.  These people are all a job loss away from possibly losing health coverage and losing a chance to thrive, to be productive members of society to love and be loved by their families and of losing those unalienable rights of life and the pursuit of happiness.

And so to those whiners I have a challenge and a parting sentiment.

Your challenge is to become courageous and honest and stand up for your view to the people who would be most affected. Your challenge is to go to a friend with some affliction; you must know somebody; we all do.  Look that person in the eye and say these words; "You know if you ever lose your health insurance I guess it sucks for you.”

And my parting sentiment?  I don’t give a good goddamn about your fucking bank account.