Some observations on the health care debate
I caught Rachel Maddow last night and she played an excellent montage of well-known politicians over the past 61 years who stated the health care system in this country desperately needed overhauling. I especially enjoyed the Truman clip, because I'm always surprised how many people don't know that we've only been struggling for health care reform in the United States since 1948.
In Truman's day he was up against a solid south voting block doing whatever it took to maintain the status quo, which meant Jim Crow still ruled and Civil Rights were a sin against God and the glorious southern way of life. Very scary times indeed; Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and President Truman wanted health care for the nation; even insisted that it was an emergency that needed to be addressed immediately. He was right, but universal health care would mean African Americans in the south would have access to white hospitals, and that would disrupt the status quo. Health care reform died, even with Truman beating the Dixiecrats in the infamous election of 1948.
Today African Americans not only play in Major League Baseball they win elections to the White House. This has many Americans terrified, just as terrified as they were in 1948 when a black man played baseball with white men and challenges to the status quo threatened to topple a completely immoral way of life. So terrified some still insist our current president can't legally be the president because in our minds brown skinned people aren't really Americans. The birth certificate is a smoke screen to make it look like it's a constitutional issue and not racism.
I've watched and listened to the politicians in Washington argue for and against a single payer public health care plan for Americans, and it's the same stupid arguments and lies they've used every time to choke the issue to death and sweep it under the very lumpy congressional rug.
Too many politicians accept money from lobbyists working for pharmaceutical companies and health insurance providers - you know - the guys who make lots and lots of money on premiums every year then do everything in their power to deny their customers coverage for expensive medical treatments their doctors tell them they need. They can't give that money to you, even though you pay large sums of money for the coverage, they need that money to lobby Washington to not vote for universal health coverage. It costs about $1.4 million dollars every day for health insurance lobbyists to do that.
They're not the only ones who don't like universal health care. I've also paid attention to those politicians insisting women's reproductive health care not be covered by the public health option. Women along with minorities are not full citizens in this country. Politicians pass and uphold immoral laws that tell women our bodies don't belong to us, that they belong to the state, and the state will decide what we can do with them. This was a very popular position politicians in Nazi Germany held too. Just as health care threatened the status quo of race 60 years ago, public health care threatens the status quo of state ownership of womens' bodies now. Women now could have the option to use birth control and even have it paid for through their health coverage. They could choose to terminate a pregnancy, because it's perfectly legal to do so in the United States. With this new freedom women could start doing other radical things like work outside the home, roll down their stockings and drink alchohol, even demand the right to vote.
Okay, I know women can do all those things, but the thinking that keeps women from making their own health care choices is the same thinking that denied us full citizenship. The notion that women's biology still must be managed by men is just as archaic and - dare I say it - immoral.
Will the new health care system allow women to control their own bodies? That remains to be seen. I'm not very optimistic because women's reproductive freedom is still a political ace politicians love to hide up their sleeves. Just as southern whites in 1948 didn't want minorities in their hospitals politicians today still whip up support and controversy over a woman's right to determine what her body will be used for. I'm becoming too pessimistic in my old age to hope people will use common sense to do the right thing 61 years later.
Since I started writing this Obama has been on TV, didn't say much to convince me things are going well, and then went ahead and told congress don't worry about a vote before they went on vacation. The 61 year emergency will drag on a few more weeks it seems.
In Truman's day he was up against a solid south voting block doing whatever it took to maintain the status quo, which meant Jim Crow still ruled and Civil Rights were a sin against God and the glorious southern way of life. Very scary times indeed; Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and President Truman wanted health care for the nation; even insisted that it was an emergency that needed to be addressed immediately. He was right, but universal health care would mean African Americans in the south would have access to white hospitals, and that would disrupt the status quo. Health care reform died, even with Truman beating the Dixiecrats in the infamous election of 1948.
Today African Americans not only play in Major League Baseball they win elections to the White House. This has many Americans terrified, just as terrified as they were in 1948 when a black man played baseball with white men and challenges to the status quo threatened to topple a completely immoral way of life. So terrified some still insist our current president can't legally be the president because in our minds brown skinned people aren't really Americans. The birth certificate is a smoke screen to make it look like it's a constitutional issue and not racism.
I've watched and listened to the politicians in Washington argue for and against a single payer public health care plan for Americans, and it's the same stupid arguments and lies they've used every time to choke the issue to death and sweep it under the very lumpy congressional rug.
Click to viewToo many politicians accept money from lobbyists working for pharmaceutical companies and health insurance providers - you know - the guys who make lots and lots of money on premiums every year then do everything in their power to deny their customers coverage for expensive medical treatments their doctors tell them they need. They can't give that money to you, even though you pay large sums of money for the coverage, they need that money to lobby Washington to not vote for universal health coverage. It costs about $1.4 million dollars every day for health insurance lobbyists to do that.
They're not the only ones who don't like universal health care. I've also paid attention to those politicians insisting women's reproductive health care not be covered by the public health option. Women along with minorities are not full citizens in this country. Politicians pass and uphold immoral laws that tell women our bodies don't belong to us, that they belong to the state, and the state will decide what we can do with them. This was a very popular position politicians in Nazi Germany held too. Just as health care threatened the status quo of race 60 years ago, public health care threatens the status quo of state ownership of womens' bodies now. Women now could have the option to use birth control and even have it paid for through their health coverage. They could choose to terminate a pregnancy, because it's perfectly legal to do so in the United States. With this new freedom women could start doing other radical things like work outside the home, roll down their stockings and drink alchohol, even demand the right to vote.
Okay, I know women can do all those things, but the thinking that keeps women from making their own health care choices is the same thinking that denied us full citizenship. The notion that women's biology still must be managed by men is just as archaic and - dare I say it - immoral.
Will the new health care system allow women to control their own bodies? That remains to be seen. I'm not very optimistic because women's reproductive freedom is still a political ace politicians love to hide up their sleeves. Just as southern whites in 1948 didn't want minorities in their hospitals politicians today still whip up support and controversy over a woman's right to determine what her body will be used for. I'm becoming too pessimistic in my old age to hope people will use common sense to do the right thing 61 years later.
Since I started writing this Obama has been on TV, didn't say much to convince me things are going well, and then went ahead and told congress don't worry about a vote before they went on vacation. The 61 year emergency will drag on a few more weeks it seems.