Still Angry

Hello readers, if any --

Haven't cooled off much in the past five days. A nasty ear infection hasn't exactly bettered my mood, and the collective wimpiness of our President and the Democrats is enough to remind me viscerally why I quit the Democratic Party so long ago! If this health care mess turns out to be more window-dressing behind pretty words, I will be more than tempted to barf on the steps of the Capitol, and I certainly will never again be suckered into working for any Democratic Presidential candidate. My finite resources and energy will be put into changing our utterly corrupt political system, instead.

As an object contrast, let me mention that my partner's father in Germany had to go into the hospital very unexpectedly three days ago. If you're not familiar with his situation, he's been on dialysis for 18 of the last 20 years (for two years, he had a transplanted kidney, but then the same virus that destroyed his own kidneys destroyed that one as well). Now, at 78, he is very frail, with osteoporosis as a result of the dialysis (he has broken both hips), but still able to walk and sometimes drive his car.

He suddenly developed a very high fever. Here's the German health system at work. His primary doctor, who lives nearby, came immediately when he was called on the phone and had the patient sent to the emergency room. Within a very short time they were in surgery. It turned out my father-in-law's appendix burst and had infected part of his intestines! He's going to stay in the hospital for quite a few days because his team of doctors know that his wife has a serious heart condition and cannot care for him when he needs lifting, etc.

My father-in-law paid into the German health care system all through his working life and now, as a retiree, continues to pay what we Americans would consider relatively high taxes. But in return, he and his wife and children don't have to worry about going bankrupt or losing the family home due to the costs of 18 years of dialysis and multiple surgeries for broken hips, carpal tunnel, cataracts, appendicitis, and more. Oh, I forgot his wife' s multiple stents and her scheduled open-heart surgery. And the large amount of prescription medication they have to take. Their four children were also able to attend excellent universities (one M.B.A., one medical doctor, one insurance broker, one professor) without having to pay any tuition (only living costs) in Germany. Their tax dollars have really worked for them. Their kids are all self-supporting, and they themselves, though not terribly well-off, are doing O.K. financially.

Contrast the peace of mind with which my in-laws can face surgery with the fear and worry of most Americans, who don't just have to deal with their apprehension about the procedure they're about to undergo, but also have to be terrified of the bills they'll have to pay! I absolutely cannot understand how anyone can think the U.S. system is anything but terminally dysfunctional. The worst thing, to me, is the knee-jerk, know-nothing, spiteful attitude of some who are out there ranting against health care reform: "I have to pay for my plan so nobody should get anything for free!"

Get this straight, people -- you are paying A LOT MORE for the uninsured now than you would under a well-implemented public option. Medicare works -- or it would if the Congress would stop looting its trust fund to pay for their pork -- and so would expanded Medicare, i.e. a single-payer plan. That's all "single-payer" is: Medicare for more people.

Here's the situation: we as a nation are not going to refuse people emergency care in order to cut costs -- we may not give them enough care, or the care they actually need, but they will get SOME kind of care. So all of us who pay taxes are paying local, state and federal taxes to support emergency services. If folks don't have health insurance because they can't afford it, they don't go to the doctor or a hospital until they have no choice, for fear of the expense. And it's much more expensive to have to intervene when someone is acutely ill than it is to give people regular preventive care, like annual check-ups or nutritional advice.

Now, I'm the first to agree that "health care reform" without a public option that cuts out the middle-man costs (the insurance industry's profit -- ugh, for-profit basic health care is SO grotesque and patently immoral) and provides real competition for the "health care industry," "reform" without a guarantee of regular preventive care, and "reform" without requiring some minimal level of cooperation and responsibility on the part of individuals, doesn't make sense. Of course, we can't expect the poor to avoid obesity when across the board, non-nutritious crud costs far less than really GOOD food, and really good food requires more shopping and preparation time as well as more bucks. But if we don't steer in that direction, our country will continue to be saddled with the staggering costs of avoidable chronic illness: some types of diabetes and heart disease leap to mind.

This is probably the last time in my useful lifetime that the United States of America has the chance to become a member of the community of truly civilized nations. If it's done right, it will actually save us all money, and it will remove a huge burden of fear. It will free small business owners from having to face a terrible choice, going out of business or cutting health insurance for loyal long-term employees. It will let the terminally ill concentrate on making the most of the time they have left, without having to dread the financial burden they will bequeathe to their families. It will liberate the many "health care serfs" who are now forced to go on working at jobs they hate, often under totally exploitative conditions, because if they quit, they will lose the health insurance they, their children, their spouse, or their parents need. It will take away a lot of obscene profit from giant insurance companies that have bled all of us to the bone for an unconscionably long time.

Let's do it. Get on the Internet, pick up the phone, take out a piece of paper, sacrifice some stamps and some time. Write your representatives, write anyone whose campaign you gave money to last year or this year. Don't hold back -- tell them you will not tolerate being cheated again. Tell them you will never give them another penny, and even if you can vote for them, you won't. Tell them what this monstrous for-profit non-system of "health care" of ours has done to you, your family members, your friends and neighbors. And give money to that handful of real public servants like Bernie Sanders, the independent Senator from Vermont, who is working 24/7 for the public option.

FIGHT.

If you don't fight, you have only yourselves to blame.