Purity vs Pragmatism or, Politcs vs Helping sick people
Ok, as this debate has moved on towards it’s present conclusion…
I feel the need to say a few unpopular and inconsistent things.
Item one: I wish the rightward folk would stop complaining…
Because, you didn’t get the dreaded Single Payer or a public option that you view as “Socialism!!!! Ah! Ah! Ah! Run for your lives!!!! Single Payer will eat all ‘real Americans’ Alive!!!!!! The Public Option is the death of democracy!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!
That. Didn’t. Happen. So, you won that corner of the debate. That’s right. I. Said. You. Won.
If one wins, in general, one STOPS kvetching.
And, Profit got a big boost for the private insurance industry. Huge. So, Wall Street is happy about this. Insurance stocks shot up. What’s not to like? Sleep easy. Congress is a bought and paid for subsidiary of lobbyists and big business.
There is, bipartisan agreement on one thing. individual mandates suck.
But a buncha healthy people have to be thrown into the risk pool to counter adverse selection.
And on the left…
I won’t say much, but fellow cancer survivor Jane Hamsher does not get a freepass on making common cause with Grover Norquist no matter the benefit of her early work to mobilize people to work for reform. Giving traction to those who wish to do nothing at all about our system. It’s not just good intent gone horribly wrong. It’s disgusting.
WTF!? WTF! I thought it when I saw it, and I thought it when I played the Fox video again, and I still think it. In the name of Hippocrates and every doctor that has had to treat an uninsured patient, how in anyones mind will ‘Kill the Bill” help the ill and uninsured??????It makes them wait just that much longer (maybe much more than the time til 2014. ) It. Makes. Them. Wait. and some cannot afford to wait (I hate to think of the people, even now, who will have to wait for the implementation of the current bill.)
I’m not saying the bill in the Senate and it’s likely strong similarity to the final bill is any kind of decent bill…but if
1. More people have coverage.
2. More people get preventative care because with insurance they *may* be able to afford it? And, that preventative care helps aviod some long protracted illness, or even staves off death and gives better quality of life…
3. Fewer people die too soon, in other words die a preventable death due to lack of care?
How is that not the beginning of good?
If this flawed bill is killed, how many will sicken and die for lack of care because Purity is the ultimate goal?
We will have horror stories I know. horror stories of people who do get sicker and die because of the deny deny deny culture of the private insurance industry….
But fewer. Fewer than if they had no coverage at all and no hope of getting any.
Less people getting sick or dying trumps politics. Every. Single. Second. Less people dying is *why* we’ve had this mind numbing year of nuts. We want fewer people to sicken unecessarily and die too early. That is the goal of healthcare reform. That. Nothing else.
Both sides have made this a game to determine a purity test.
This is not a game. This is breathing more. This is adding more good days to many, many peoples lives.
This is not politics.
It’s about living.
What a long strange trip…
So I had to do some business downtown. That required the use of a paratransit bus to get down there since even the roomate and her van don’t work well downtown if you cannot park.
He was a joky fella, very good at the job.
And he didn’t have a problem letting me know which side of the healthcare debate he was on.
I thought, “He’s driving me around town. I’ll have to be diplomatic. Who knows what he could do…”
How many times do we with impairments have to *think* this thought about caregivers, assistants etc, damnit? We have to censor what we might normally say or do when we are, effectively, in the care custody and control of an unknown quantity?)
For starters we did agree that if one publically states they have (in their view) “moral” objections, then accepts a payoff to their state and drops their formerly “moral” objection, that made them dishonorable and perhaps unworthy of their office.
But it got harder and harder as details came out. His pride in attending town hall meetings. “I don’t want healthcare.” The certainty that the undocumented are here to aggrandize one particular denomination of Christianity. and more that I’m afraid to detail, but that I consider to be a dangerous worldview.
I’m afraid of this person now. And afraid for those they may come in contact with.
And, after trying to find common ground, trying to steer the conversation away from controversy with the explanation that, yes, government forces people to buy auto insurance (if they want to drive) all the time…. and that, in an ideal world, health reform asks the question, “Do you want to feel better (in place of “do you want to drive?”) and live longer?” You do? Ok, that’s why the law exists mandating the purchase…(It’s a mess of a bill, godknows but I was just working on getting the basics across…) Getting him to admit that paying a fine and going to the ER was going to cost more than even this patchwork we got…..
I said… regarding health care, “It’s a right!!!!!” “It’s a right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Being as healthy as one can, with appropriate care and follow up… isn’t just for the privileged few. It’s our right. I had to say it.
“My PCA/Roomate, riding along, said my name in grave concern…she wanted to get our errands done alive after all, so that was a nudge in the direction of discretion.
He, of course, views health care as a fancy handbag, or cufflinks, or lumber — a piece of goods, not a fundamental right…and on it went.
I then said, “Look, we know we aren’t going to agree on anything….It’s Christmas, so lets wrap this up.” We did, he dropped us off, and we each wished the other a good day…
Phew. That was close.
Quote of the day…
from a surprising source
They’ve given me permission to use it on the next purveyor of unsolicited advice that irks me.
“When I want your advice, I’ll think better of it, and ask someone else.”
Ok, she says grudgingly, Miracles can, and do happen
It was just an hour phone call. The kind of call you usually get around Christmas…someone close discussing the kind of tree they put up this year and the ornaments they put on it…why certain presents present and past were given…mutual rejoicing in the fact that a certain bit of music from Christmas past has not been lost. An hour. Of normal phone conversation…
With someone close who hasn’t been set up to discourse that way with me for, well let’s just say several years and leave it at that.
I find no irony in saying that material presents in boxes with bows and such…well…
They’re overrated.
It isn’t often that this grumpy author finds the gratitude in her life so full that it feels as though it will break out of the skin.
Midlife And Treachery 
