Universal Health Care in America - It's Time for the Truth

     It seems that the time for Universal Health Care in America has come...or has it?  Other nations have been providing quality health care to their citizens for decades, yet the very mention of the idea here in the States gives rise to claims of Socialist agendas, vitriolic accusations of laziness, and other hateful, ignorant and nonsensical rhetoric.

     Why does the idea of Universal Health Care seem to bring out the worst in so many people?  As a person who likes to believe that people are inherently good, I find it difficult to maintain that perspective when I hear people claim that they work harder than others and deserve to keep what they have worked so hard for...or that they don't understand why their hard work should help provide for " those slackers" who just want to live off of everyone else.  Excuse me...am I hearing right?

     So many people in this country work hard everyday, often at more than one job, just to keep food on the table.  Many have no health care coverage or inadequate coverage.  Even those who think they have good insurance often find that their insurers refuse to pay for much of their care.  It's a little thing called record profits in the insurance industry through claim denial.   Sure, there are a few lazy people out there who just want to work the system, but they are the minority.  Most of our less fortunate people are hard-working individuals...people who chose social work over law school or to help support their families instead of going to college.  Many are people who have simply fallen on hard times through job loss, a death in the family, or some other tragedy.

     Despite the hateful position of some who choose to believe that the poor or less fortunate are where they are because they just didn't work hard enough, there is still evidence of compassion and humanitarianism in this country.  I have seen it myself many times...people who will lend a helping hand or even risk their lives to save another.  But charity can only reach so far.  Donations can only do so much for so many and the less fortunate remain at the whim of the donors and the economy.  Many will disagree, but I don't believe, that when it comes to food, shelter and health care, that anyone in a country with so much wealth should have to rely on the charity of others, if and when it is offered. 

     Charity may be alive and well in this country and it is still true that most Americans are willing to give a little, some a lot, when they can.  But giving because you want to is a lot different than giving because you have to.  Maybe that's what's really going on here. Americans just don't want to be required by the government to be compassionate...we don't want helping to become mandatory.  Like a spoiled, willful child, the average American just doesn't want to be told what to do.  Unfortunately, the average American also doesn't seem to realize the amount of collateral damage this "you're not the boss of me" tantrum is causing. 

     We're big on freedom here; it is America after all, land of the free, home of the brave.  But sadly we have forgotten that, with rights come responsibilities.  Like it or not, we are all in this together and, although it isn't as obvious for some as it is for others, we all depend on one another to a certain extent.  Ignorant of this truth, we cry and moan that we don't want to pay for someone else's health care, failing to realize that we already are.  With our highly inefficient health care system, we aren't just paying, we're paying top dollar.  We pay, through our taxes, through ever-increasing deductibles and co-pays, through skyrocketing prescription costs because the healthy need to subsidize the unhealthy.  Why?  Because that's the way the system is designed. 

     Of course, we try to delay paying for as long as possible.  We wait until the poor and the sick get poorer and sicker and finally, out of desperation, seek medical care.  Now their illnesses are more serious and the care they need more extensive and expensive.  Then we pay.  Are we blind?  Can we not see the monster we have created? Even if Americans, after years of capitalism poisoning our souls and hardening our hearts, no longer feel any moral imperative to help those that are less fortunate...can we not at least be made to understand that it is in our own financial best interest to do so?

     The truth is that Universal Health Care would result in lower costs for the vast majority of us, without sacrificing the quality of care.  Yet many are quick to claim the opposite.  Based on old information or hearsay or fear of the unknown or plain old lies, people will claim that Universal Health Care is one big step down the road to socialism...that it will cost all of us huge amounts of money and that we will wait months to see our doctors and get shoddy care.  What are people basing this on?  Antiquated ideas of what universal health care is, old data from Canada's health care system when it was just getting started and they hadn't yet worked out the kinks, propaganda spewed by the rich and powerful who want to remain so. Before we go off half-cocked about the dangers of Universal Health Care, we need to educate ourselves.

    There is a wealth of information out there.  Watch Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko." Whatever your opinion of Mr. Moore, you can't bash a film until you have seen it.  And when you see it, you can't help but to have your eyes opened to the reality of health care in America vs. Universal Health Care elsewhere.  Not yet convinced?  Research it on line...there are plenty of sites that discuss the costs and quality of care here and in other, more progressive nations.  Crunch the numbers for yourselves.  While some of you may not give a damn about other people, I know for sure that you give a damn about your own pocketbook.  Read up, educate yourself, and you'll see that Universal Health Care is not only about the common good (about which you may not give a crap) but it's about saving you money (which I'm sure speaks to you quite loudly).

     Still unconvinced as to how this could possibly work?  Where is the money to pay for a system like this coming from?  Check out the information at Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).  Yes, you read that right ...Physicians...for a National Health Program.  It turns out that the majority of doctors favor some type of Universal Health Care plan because they are tired of scrambling to try to help people who can't afford the medicines they need, who wait to come to the doctor until they are nearly beyond help.  The PNHP explains fully how a national, single-payer system would work, how it would be financed and what it would mean (financially and health-wise) for all of us.

     Michael Moore said it best at the end of his documentary.  When questioning why so many other countries could afford to provide all of their citizens with high quality health care while the US could not, he said that it's because they think in terms of we, not me.  Yes, there it is whether we like it or not; the moral imperative.  Has American society stooped so low, are we so self-centered that we can no longer maintain even the facade of concern for the common good?  Is it really as it seems - "Hooray for me and to hell with you?"

   Ask yourself; would you step over someone who had been hit by a car and let them die in the gutter because they were between jobs and had no health insurance?  Would you sit idly by and watch a child die from a curable disease because his single mom doesn't have health insurance or enough money to pay for treatment?  I hope and choose to believe that the answer is no...so why is it that when the idea of making sure that everyone in this country has access to health care without fear of bankruptcy comes up, so do the walls?  Why? Because it's always easier to fear or hate what or whom we don't know.

     The truth is, many of us don't know the "less fortunate."  Keeping to our small, homogeneous social circles, we imagine the "less fortunate" to be some inferior race, flawed and unworthy.  Perhaps the answer is for Americans to move beyond their limited social circles, to get to know people from different walks of life, to put a human face on these so-called slackers and parasites.  Maybe then, those who have would begin to view those who have not in a different light.  Maybe then, we would see that they, like us, are human beings, doing the best they can.  Maybe then we would see that there, but for the grace of God, go I. 

     Don't kid yourselves...no matter how much you have and how protected you think you are, you are one major life crisis away from becoming a have not.  The ones who already find themselves there are most often not the slackers or parasites they are made out to be.  They are the sickly, the poorly educated, the ones who didn't get the lucky breaks, the ones who work hard everyday just to keep their heads above water...they are our neighbors, our sisters, our grandmothers.  People who, through no fault of their own, simply have less.  Have our hearts really shrunken to the point here we can say that they should be left to die in the streets...that they don't deserve the basic necessities of food, shelter and health care?  As the most powerful, and supposedly, greatest nation on earth, can we not and should we not provide and care for our own?

     It's time for the people of this country to take a long, hard look in the mirror.  Are we hard-hearted, selfish bastards who believe that those less fortunate deserve nothing more than the scraps we throw them , if and when we decide to do so?  Are we fools who delude ourselves with our so-called independence?  Are we egotists that truly believe we who have more have it because we are better and more deserving?  Are we ignoramuses that can't even see that our current system is penny-wise but pound-foolish?  Is this who we have become...is it who we want to be? 

     If so, count me out.  Personally, I can't enjoy a steak dinner while I watch my neighbor eat from garbage can and, call me an optimist, but I can't help but believe that deep down, most of us feel the same way.  We've just chosen to turn our heads.  It's time to take down the fences that separate us so that we can see what is really going on in our neighbor's world.  We need to get to know our neighbors, to learn their names, to understand their circumstances and feel their pain.  Then perhaps it will dawn on us that we truly are all in this together.  Perhaps then, we can make real change, not for the benefit of the few, but for the many.

     In reading this over, I was tempted to apologize in case I'd offended anyone.  Then I realized that I am not willing to apologize for being passionate about the health and well-being of my fellow citizens, the future of my country, or the state of our world. I've said my piece, let the chips fall where they may.

      

Comments

[Margaret]

Good Lord, Lori. The last thing you should do is apologize for expressing YOUR opinion on YOUR blog. Well said by you, by the way.

[Shilpan]

Lori,

Well said. I am paying almost $1000 a month for my family insurance. I can afford it but it is still lot of money. I feel pain of those who are less fortunate and struggling to pay for other necessities let alone health care. Something ought to be done to avoid this train wreck.

Shilpan

[Lori@betweenusgirls]

Margaret,

Thanks. What can I say? I hate to offend or alienate people but I feel strongly about this. Sometimes, you just have to say it like it is. And it is MY blog after all:)

Shilpan,

Thanks for sharing your feelings on this as well. Our health care system and our economy as a whole are turning into a bit of a train wreck, aren't they?

[On Da Road]

The most thought out, level headed post I have seen on Universal Healthcare. Very well said. Hats off to you.

http://www.midlifeonwheelsblog.com

[Lori]

OnDaRoad,

That's one of the nicest things anyone has said to me lately. Thanks!

[Barbara]

Perhaps universal medical care will be practical here when our country has the same demographics as those countries we are compared to. Which will never happen. By size, by constitution, by cultural (mix, aka diversity) by economic base, by geography - we have few peers in the world. None who have universal care. As appealing a concept as this is, the work towards a complete conversion to universal health care is yet significant. 'Complete', yes. Count the portions of our population that already have care in which federal and state governments are the intermediary - Medicaid, Medicare, all military and their dependents, veterans and most of their dependents. In total, what portion are these populations of the whole? Locally, many counties have their own tax-sharing-to provide medical programs. I am unapologetic, too, for trying to show facts as they are. It's something you have to do as a parent. It's something you have to do as a teacher. And as a therapist, work to problem solve toward a solution. As eloquently as you present the reasons universal care is good, I do not see the means or process to get there in your post. That's understandable as it would likely take another whole post. I'd like to read that one, too.

[Lori]

Barbara,

While you lost me there with some of your comments you also made some interesting points. It is true that we are culturally diverse in a way that some of the countries that have universal health care are not, but I'm not sure that this makes universal health coverage an impossibility here.

When I have the chance, I'll have to do some more research and report back what I find (as far as how to best go about instituting a universal health care program in the US) although I am sure that experts have already done that. If and when I locate specifics, I will indeed write another post on it! Thanks for your input.