Health Care Reform: The Time is (Still) Now

What can I say about health care reform that hasn’t been said by millions of other people millions of times over the past hundred years? Plenty.

The thing I am definitely not hearing, not from the politicians, not from the pundits, is that this issue is not about the doctors, not about the economy, not about the accountants and their number crunching, not about the federal debt, although I know that all of these considerations will help to shape the ultimate bill should it be passed in Congress. No, this issue is about health care, and especially about the people who need it.

Why don’t I hear a great hue and cry coming out of the electorate? We should be outraged that once more, the people we voted in to office, our senators and congressmen, are following in that time-honored tradition of their forebears who diddled around while millions upon millions of people were denied access to even the most rudimentary health care coverage.

If the argument were made that public schools were just too expensive and that ultimately, they would bring our financial system to its knees, would we stand still for allowing our children to grow up ignorant and unprepared for the work world? I think not! We all acknowledge that some basic skills and literacy must be afforded to all of our citizens so that they can lead a decent life, and, as the Declaration of Independence states, so that they can exercise their right to “the pursuit of happiness”. Imagine our country without universal education. Try. It’s unthinkable. The implications would be enormous.

But at least, if there weren’t public education, it would not be an immediate threat to that other inalienable right – the right to life. But that’s what we’re talking about when we talk about healthcare. I don’t know whether anyone has bothered to take a census of all of the needless deaths that occur every year in this country because forty-six million people were denied access to health care. It would be hard to quantify since there are so many variables that come into play when you’re talking about illness.

The cost of even the most basic medical care has soared in the past fifty years. Unless your name happens to be Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates, trust me: you can’t afford it. You may, like so many hard-working Americans, be forced into bankruptcy. You may lose your home. You may simply die an untimely death because you can’t even buy life-saving medicine. You might even experience all of these possible outcomes.

And don’t get me started on the so-called “underwriting practices” which are standard operating procedure for the health insurers. I myself am a two-time cancer survivor. Thank God I had coverage. (We were blessed to have a wise and compassionate insurance broker. She helped us to navigate the treacherous waters of the insurance providers). Many, many people are not so lucky. Should you be denied health coverage because you are or have ever been sick?

It seems to me that many of our elected officials are a bit too cozy with big business, and big business includes big insurance companies. It also strikes me that many politicians are more concerned about future elections than they are about the welfare of their own constituents. And then there is another class of politicians: The politicians who are hell-bent on destroying our current president – at any cost. They belong to the “let-them-eat-cake” school of government, and should be treated accordingly. (Figuratively speaking, of course!)

We the People are being sold down the river at the very time when we need the support of our government the most. We who are or have been sick are a silent and large minority whose civil rights are being trampled every time we are denied access to decent medical attention. We who have lost our jobs and therefore lost our insurance are being doubly victimized for our misfortune.

Pray for enlightenment on the part of the Senate and the House. It’s an emergency and the doctor is out playing golf.

Back To “The Good Old Days”?

I am old enough to remember the “good old days” — before Roe v. Wade. It was not a pretty picture.

I had a friend, let’s call her Henrietta. Henrietta was 17 years-old, a senior in high school, and had a boyfriend, let’s call him Fred, who was 21 and worked in construction. Fred and Henrietta were deeply, passionately in love. They wanted to be married as soon as Henrietta finished high school and Fred could save up enough from his back-breaking work to make a home for them.
Inevitably, Fred and Henrietta couldn’t wait and became intimate. I know that they believed all of the prevalent teen-aged myths about conception: That she couldn’t get pregnant the first time. That if she douched immediately after sex she couldn’t become pregnant. That if Fred used a condom, however imperfectly, they were safe. Well, they weren’t safe. On his day off, Fred wound up driving Henrietta to a “back alley” abortionist out of state. Henrietta had to be home by supper time to avoid the suspicion of her parents, who were both unstable and given to wild fits of temper.

When I went to visit Henrietta that night, I found her in bed, crying, a heating pad on her abdomen, and bleeding profusely. She would not talk about her experience. She was ashamed, frightened, distraught, in pain, and burdened by a secret she could only share sparingly with her closest friends. She had been catapulted into adulthood abruptly, and with no safety net. The abortion had cost thousands of dollars — money Fred had been saving for their future, which was now in doubt, given the complexity of emotions brought on by this harrowing experience.

Some might say that Henrietta lost her innocence when she first decided to have sex with her boyfriend. Some might say that this whole trauma might have been avoided had Henrietta’s parents, or Fred’s parents, given them proper moral guidance or made themselves more emotionally accessible and compassionate. But here is what I take away from this very sad incident: We are all imperfect beings. Young people can not always stem the tide of roiling passion brought on by very real hormonal surges.

Although I did not know any woman personally who was killed or maimed for life by a botched abortion, I know that they existed.

I also remember Mom telling me that one of her affluent friends was going in to the hospital for a “D and C”. When I asked her what that meant she whispered, “A Dusting and Cleaning”, which was the code for “Dilation and Curettage”. I came to find out later that what that meant was that a woman could have a surgery wherein her cervix was dilated and the contents of her uterus were scraped or vacuumed out. Supposedly, this procedure was reserved for women who had suffered a miscarriage. But I came to find out that some women, women of means, who wanted to opt out of a pregnancy could appeal to a sympathetic doctor and, for a reasonable sum, could terminate the pregnancy in the safety and comfort of a reputable hospital or doctor’s office. Of course, this option was only available to the “country club” set, who not only could afford it, but also had the “right connections” to the “right doctors”.

I did know of one young girl who was in my geometry class in the ninth grade. Let’s call her Susie. She was a flirt and a great beauty and was envied by all of the other girls in the class. When her lithe figure began to change and she began wearing over-sized dresses and skirts, there was widespread speculation as to the reason. When she dropped out of school for a year “to live with her grandparents in the country”, the speculation became even more cruel and unrelenting. And when she returned a year later, she was subdued and kept to herself, no longer the vivacious flirt she had once been. And she was an outcast. I don’t know for sure, but I am guessing that I know what had happened to Susie. She had given birth. I will never know the full extent of the consequences in her life but some of them were evident, even to me. But what might have happened if Susie had been given more education, more access to birth control, or another choice should either of those have failed?

Oh, yes. I remember the “good old days”. If the next president happens to choose supreme court justices, which will very likely be the case, they will most likely carefully choose in keeping with their own philosophical views. Right now the balance in the court is such that the issue of a woman’s right to choose is still protected by Roe v. Wade. Just one supreme court justice could tip the balance.

When you vote on Tuesday for a president, you will also be casting a ballot for or against the rights of the already born. We can still make inroads into reducing teen-aged pregnancy with education and compassionate guidance. Still, young people will make mistakes, even in the most conservative and God-fearing families (as we have recently seen in the news), parents will be imperfect, and biology will sometimes trump common sense. The well-to-do and the well-connected will always have ready access to safe abortions, regardless of laws to the contrary. Nobody knows the “right” answer to the abortion question. You must search your own conscience and make your decision based on all you know and all you believe. Will you cast your vote to go back to the “good old days”? Personally, I will not.

A MIRACLE

A MIRACLE

Yesterday the citizens of Iraq had their first free election in decades. Watching the footage on television, I was awestruck by the courage of these people. With the reality of suicide bombers in some cases, just around the corner, with the sound of gunfire as a constant background noise, with the tense, tight security and soldiers everywhere, with people being frisked routinely – even in one case I saw, a man in a wheelchair – it is a testimony to the human spirit that so many brave souls – men and women – dared to venture to the polls and make their choices, faced by a ballot with hundreds of names and a myriad of parties to consider. In case you didn’t happen to see it on CNN – There was, literally, dancing and singing in the street. Many voters brought their small children with them so that the children could witness this historic moment. Iraqi expatriates from all corners of the globe showed up at polls in fourteen nations to express their support for and solidarity with their country.

I had to ask myself if I would be so brave under similar circumstances. I honestly don’t know. I have never been deprived of my right to vote. I’ve been voting for some thirty-five years, and even if I didn’t like the ultimate outcome of an election, I knew I had the inalienable right to voice my opinion and to have my opinion counted. (Well, mostly, but that is a discussion for another day). I have never had my life threatened by the simple act of walking to my polling place. We don’t really know what we are capable of doing until we are faced with the situation.

As much as I have been opposed to the invasion of Iraq, and as little as I like many of the opinions and policies of the current administration, I have to admit that – for now, at least – it appears that the sacrifices of people of this country and others may have served a very high purpose. Whatever the true motivations for our military intervention in the first place, I cannot argue with what happened yesterday.

There was some violence, which is tragic. There may be more violence in the future, but hopefully, less and less. Free people tend to prosper, and prosperous people tend to love peace.

But there was a decided victory yesterday. No matter what the outcome of this election, the people of Iraq have come out in droves to defy terrorism and to stand up for their autonomy. That is a miracle.

© 2005, Robin Munson

SOME THOUGHTS ON VOTING

Two weeks until the election. I’ll bet you’re as tired as I am of hearing about it. I think maybe one of the reasons so many people fail to vote is that by the time the election rolls around, they’re convinced that they have already voted – over and over again.

Think about it. We keep hearing the poll results from the media. It’s like checking your pulse every five minutes. Is my heart beating now? What’s the rate? Will it go on, or will it suddenly stop, say, in the next five to ten minutes? And if my pulse is racing, what are the long-term ramifications? Am I temporarily excited or am I about to have a coronary? Yes, I would love to stop checking my pulse, but when you’re talking about pulse rate, five minutes can be an eternity. I must check it, again and again, so that I will know with certainty what will happen in the next five minutes. After all, the pulse rate today, maybe blood pressure tomorrow. Insane.

From the time I was a little girl I heard my father saying that the electorate in this country was complacent, lazy, underinvolved. I always thought it was true. Now, I wonder if the truth is just the opposite. We are overinvolved. We have been systematically desensitized by a flood of media hype. It doesn’t really matter where your own particular brand of politics happens to fall; you, my fellow citizen, have been numbed by an avalanche of overinformation. (Not, of course, accurate information. Here, the media has given us a word for the phenomenon: “spin”).

The politicians, of course, are equally to blame when it comes to spin. After all, if public opinion hands you a lemon, you must make lemonade. Perhaps one of the most famous (and pitiful) examples of spin is, “It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is”. Yes, if you’re caught with your pants down (literally) you have to spin till you’re dizzy. But Bill Clinton did not invent spin, and, although he was a brilliant politician, he wasn’t actually a master of spin. (That’s why it was so pitiful). I have much better spinmeisters I could point to, but that might make me look partisan, so I’ll pass. Besides, what difference does it make? Everyone does it. It is the political equivalent of wearing make-up. You go for the illusion of being natural. No one actually expects you to be natural. And whether you favor the Tammy Faye approach or the Christie Brinkley approach, everyone knows you wear make-up. Can you name one supermodel who doesn’t wear make-up? Aha! That’s my point.

So, here is what I intend to do for the next two weeks. I intend not to watch television news. I will watch “I Love Lucy”reruns. I will write my blog. I will read another book in the Mitford series. I will stay close to my loved ones. I will clean house and make dinner. I have already gone over my ballot and I know how I will vote. Unless something earth-shaking happens between now and November 2nd, there is no more information I need. So, hopefully, by November 2nd I won’t be too burnt-out to vote. I will remember that I haven’t really voted before in this election, although I may have dreamt or imagined that I voted in this election hundreds of times.

I hope you will vote, too. In real life. On November 2nd. Even if it seems like you’ve “been there, done that”. You haven’t.