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 19th
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.
