Yet Another Health Care Rant
I wrote this a few days ago...after listening to the health care debate spring up again, especially as regards mental health screens and treatments in reference to the shooting in Tucson. There's a school rant building as well, as the pressure of overcrowding leads to talk of 'voluntary' re-districting at the elementary school.
It's actually a pretty nice weekend, but getting these things off my chest and out of my mind helps keep it that way :)
Here's the thing that's stymieing health care reform in the United States. It's our fear of the Boogeyman.
Everyone dies. This is something that most Americans don't know, or don't want to face. And almost everyone gets sick. I qualify that statement only because it is within the realm of possibility that someone, somewhere in America never ever gets sick, never ever gets injured, and will lie down one night and die peaceably in their sleep, alleviating any need for any health care. Others may need it, and not get it, but that is part of the problem.
Most of us, however, will get sick. We will be injured. We will have children, and that won't always go so well. We will get old and frail and die from something not-so-quick and benign as a heart attack in our sleep.
You can't save up for that, and you can't prepare for it. Most of us can't pay for it out of hand, and no one can make the on the fly decisions that need to be made when the winds of crisis are blowing so hard we can hardly stand up against them. You think you can and you will, but you can't and you won't.
This is not something to be ashamed of; it only means that you are human.
The people that I have heard discussing their excellent plans for covering their own health care needs always seem terribly naive. The man who'd carefully priced labor and delivery at various hospitals, negotiated a deal with one, and saved up for the birth of his child...but seemed to have no awareness of the things that can go wrong. No savings for emergency c-section, or NICU, or even a day or two extra hospital stay for either wife or baby. The two political consultants who didn't see the need for ER visits for infants with high fevers. After all, a 'mother's instinct' should let you know if it's meningitis or RSV or teething. The people who believe 'something should be done' about the mentally ill in our communities, but religiously vote against the taxes necessary to pay for those services. The folk who believe the Boogeyman will not visit them if they eat right and exercise, and that illness is the fault of the person who becomes ill.
This last typifies the main sin in this debate. If illness is someone's fault, then no one feels obligated to help. The argument is that no one should be forced to pay for another person's unhealthy lifestyle and choices.
In short, in my country, we are not our brother's keeper.
It's actually a pretty nice weekend, but getting these things off my chest and out of my mind helps keep it that way :)
Here's the thing that's stymieing health care reform in the United States. It's our fear of the Boogeyman.
Everyone dies. This is something that most Americans don't know, or don't want to face. And almost everyone gets sick. I qualify that statement only because it is within the realm of possibility that someone, somewhere in America never ever gets sick, never ever gets injured, and will lie down one night and die peaceably in their sleep, alleviating any need for any health care. Others may need it, and not get it, but that is part of the problem.
Most of us, however, will get sick. We will be injured. We will have children, and that won't always go so well. We will get old and frail and die from something not-so-quick and benign as a heart attack in our sleep.
You can't save up for that, and you can't prepare for it. Most of us can't pay for it out of hand, and no one can make the on the fly decisions that need to be made when the winds of crisis are blowing so hard we can hardly stand up against them. You think you can and you will, but you can't and you won't.
This is not something to be ashamed of; it only means that you are human.
The people that I have heard discussing their excellent plans for covering their own health care needs always seem terribly naive. The man who'd carefully priced labor and delivery at various hospitals, negotiated a deal with one, and saved up for the birth of his child...but seemed to have no awareness of the things that can go wrong. No savings for emergency c-section, or NICU, or even a day or two extra hospital stay for either wife or baby. The two political consultants who didn't see the need for ER visits for infants with high fevers. After all, a 'mother's instinct' should let you know if it's meningitis or RSV or teething. The people who believe 'something should be done' about the mentally ill in our communities, but religiously vote against the taxes necessary to pay for those services. The folk who believe the Boogeyman will not visit them if they eat right and exercise, and that illness is the fault of the person who becomes ill.
This last typifies the main sin in this debate. If illness is someone's fault, then no one feels obligated to help. The argument is that no one should be forced to pay for another person's unhealthy lifestyle and choices.
In short, in my country, we are not our brother's keeper.