The following is not meant to offend and is best read with an open mind. I have just found myself consumed by frustration today. These points are at the core of my thoughts:
1- Health care reform, with the inclusion of a public option, will not make people lazy. In fact, the hardest working people I know are the ones most in need of a path to medical coverage. Construction workers, small business owners and employees, single mothers left to support an entire house hold, these are the people who need help. I did not say a handout but simply the chance to buy into something, because right now they don't even have that. In the Declaration of Independence, our "unalienable rights" include "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". A public option, along with other measures, would improve American lives as a whole, give the liberty to choose an option without being denied (at lower overall rates) and make happiness a more attainable pursuit.
2- One day, we will all need to use the system. You never realize how close something is until it hits you on the head. Unless money has never been and will never be an issue in your life, you will at one point or another need our country's health care network. How lucky we are to live in a place where medical advancements are being made at an ever increasing rate but what good is a fancy pen if the ink is too expensive to buy? Whether it is having a baby while in college, becoming injured in an accident or simply breathing some unseen health hazard, we all need the system to be there and thus be derailed from the broken path towards self destruction that it is currently on.
3- God is not a respecter of persons. He does not care if you are black, white, orange, poor, educated, whatever, He loves you. This life is a state of probation, a test of the extent to which we will love our Maker and ultimately, how we will love our neighbor, for when we are in their service, we are only in His. When a man lay dying on the road to Jericho, the Samaritan did the truely Christian act and gave of what he had to nurse the stranger back to health. In our day there are thousands of people along the paths of our health care system who have been shunned or pushed aside for belonging to a certain "demographic", risk group or tax bracket.
It is absolutely vital that those in need have the ability to access the care that is available in our country. Being "covered" should not be the decisive string holding our lives together. I am not saying it should be free, for work is essential to a good life but when someone you love is laying on that hospital bed, life is what becomes important.
At any cost.
Jake
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Hey Jake! This is Shannon Sullivan. How the heck are ya?! I just wanted to say THAAAANK YOU for this post! I have such strong feelings on this subject, and you have portrayed them in a way I have not been able to. As someone who's father had to decide between becoming backrupt because of hospital bills and LIVING, I understand the need for some sort of change in our heathcare system. Good to know someone else has an open mind about it!
ReplyDeleteHey jake. I bet you hate my comments on your blog, but I like reading your posts like these. Hopefully you can permit a comment or two on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI think this is very well written and I agree 100% - if we live in a Utopia run by honest men and women who truly care about the public as a whole. But sadly, I feel we do not. We live in a bureaucracy run by people only looking out for themselves and their lobbyists. I do not feel we can trust Washington to solve any of our societies problems as they have a pretty dismal batting average based on recent history. I worry the cure will be worse than the disease, so to speak.
I also have a hard time with your good Samaritan argument. While I agree that we all should be willing to help our fellow man, being forced to by the government seems a little wrong. To take it back to the religious argument, I think part of God's plan is to preserve our free agency. We can choose to help, or choose not to. There are certainly medical charities that one can donate to if they want to help those lacking essential medical care, but should we force donation through higher taxation and wealth redistribution? I don't know.
Finally, you mentioned "whatever the cost". I think that is a noble statement, but surely you can't really put a blank check out there for healthcare. At some point, government spending could exceed all privately earned income. Then what? 100% taxes could not cover the bills. We are already at about $107k per citizen into debt as a country. Now we are going to spend 1.3 trillion more on healthcare just to get started? Scary.
Anyway, hope you don't mind a little counter argument. I do think I have an open mind and I would love for someone to show me how we can actually pull off national healthcare and make it work. I just haven't seen it.
Have a nice day and see you soon.
-Taylor