(As some evangelicals would say, WWJD? - promoted by ryan)
Something disturbs me about what I witnessed at a Teabag Party in Metairie Aug 22nd and Senator Landrieu's Townhall in Reserve Aug 27th. The health care debate was mangled by misinformed people carrying inflammatory signs and shouting their parroted nonsense about illegal immigrants, abortion, death panels, and government take-over. Unfounded fears are being fueled and anti-government sentiments are being stoked. Insensitivity and selfishness ("me, myself, and I and damn everyone else") are rampant among people claiming to be Christian. They hurl insults calling the uninsured losers and moochers. On which side do they think Jesus would really stand?
The real issue-a moral one-is being ignored. Health care should be accessible to all and not based on the profit margins of others. The rationing going on now in our present for-profit broken system is maddening. Insurance magnates are practicing medicine without a license and making life and death decisions based on what their stockholders stand to lose and gain. People screaming the loudest to oppose health care reform do not realize they are but one serious illness or accident, 1 job layoff, away from financial ruin themselves.
Even the most conservative of experts warn that unless the U.S. reforms health care substantially, we are destined for an economic collapse. The costs of health care are spiraling out of control. Tort reform has not even dented skyrocketing costs and ballooning premiums. Doing nothing and installing more insurance companies as competition are nonsensical. Offering tax deductions and subsidies are not the answer. We must bring down the cost of health care with a public option. Once people see that, though it is not free, it gives more for less, they will opt for it. Herein is the rub. Corporate bureaucrats are afraid that their lucrative gravy train will then become derailed. They are investing untold amounts in media advertising to inflame the uninformed to do their dirty work.
Rather than fight to defeat universal health care, everyone should be focused on finding the best way to pay for it. I am uninsurable and have coverage only because of my husband. Three of our adult children are uninsurable. We are not freeloaders. We work hard. We are no less patriotic than those waving flags and running their mouths. And we are no less deserving of health care.
I especially see the unfairness of our broken health care system in the faces of many of my college students each semester as they struggle to classes sick and uninsured. They cannot afford textbooks, much less doctor visits. The cheapest insurance policy in Louisiana for a healthy 25-year-old has a $1000 deductible, plus $500 deductible for prescriptions, plus $200 a month premiums. So a penniless college student would have to shell out $1500 in addition to premiums before the insurance policy would pay squat.
The American Plan = Public Option Now = Affordable, Accessible Health Care for All! It is long overdue and should not be dependent on the money one makes. We can't delay for a non-existent, perfect compromise to be crafted. Had we waited for such, slavery would still exist and Medicare and Social Security would not. |
