Sometimes I feel that the ultra-conservative movement in America reflects a "Soylent Green" mentality. Ironically, the Bible and Christianity is used to justify an ideology that is far from what Jesus preached. In recent weeks, I have encountered several Republican women in my community circulating petitions for signing which state that the Health Reform Act is "Unconstitutional." I usually politely decline signing these petitions and tell them that I support Health Reform. One woman at the county fair wanted to argue with me, however. And so I engaged (briefly).
I told her that I am a Social Security Disability attorney and every week I help people who have lost everything (and I mean everything) due to a devastating family illness. I have seen literally hundreds of hardworking local residents lose a lifetime of retirement savings, their homes with full equity, and their peace of mind (i.e. they cannot sleep at night due to mounting, unpaid medical bills), due to an illness. These same people cannot get the medical care they require, even in cases of terminal illness. I also reminded her that 32 million people are uninsured in America today. Someday she could be one of them.
In response, the thirty or forty-something year old woman said "That's too bad. I feel sorry for them, I really do. But it's not my problem."
Does she really "feel sorry for them"? I don't think so. The 32 million people that I reference are simply numbers in the heads of people who have not been truly affected by the plight of the uninsured. I deeply believe that this woman, and others holding those petitions, would change their minds if one of their loved ones: a mother, a sister, a sick child, was a part of that 32 million statistic.
Circulating petitions stating that Health Reform is "Unconstitutional" is the ultimate Republican spin. In my first year as a law student at UC Law School 13 years ago, I was instructed that the US Constitution included a Bankruptcy Clause because the drafters acknowledged that losing all of one's financial resources through job loss, or sickness, or failure to keep a business afloat, could quite literally lead a person to suicide. Bankruptcy was the merciful solution provided by the government to relieve a citizen in that time of stress.
But now, for some reason, a person's right to be slaughtered by medical bills (more than half of all bankruptcies are the result of unpaid medical bills) is Constitutionally PROTECTED? That's a farce. It's a lie.
The private insurance companies have made a killing on sick Americans through unjust policies regarding pre-existing conditions and countless other profiteering tactics. Politicians like John Boehner support these money making private companies and convince Americans that their corruption is somehow Constitutionally protected. The Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves.
The United States of America is the only industrialized Democracy that does not require the right of basic health care to its citizens. So if this mandate is so "Unconstitutional" and demands repeal, then why have no other industrialized nations required such repeal based on their respective (Democratic) Constitutions?
I have said it many times: a society and its government is only as strong as its treatment of its most vulnerable citizens. Case in point, the Nazi regime. Only the strong and the young were valued in that Godless system. There is something very dark about saying one "sympathizes" with a fellow citizen and then denying his or her access to basic medical care.
Finally, I say to the healthy woman who told me that "she feels sorry for the 32 million" but that "it's not (her) problem": someday it WILL be your problems. You will grow old and/or sick and not have proper coverage, or your loved ones will need medical care and not have coverage. It's not enough that you supposedly sympathize with people in these sad situations. As Americans, we must EMPATHIZE with their plight, recognizing that someday it will be us, or our loved ones in the same predicament.
I told her that I am a Social Security Disability attorney and every week I help people who have lost everything (and I mean everything) due to a devastating family illness. I have seen literally hundreds of hardworking local residents lose a lifetime of retirement savings, their homes with full equity, and their peace of mind (i.e. they cannot sleep at night due to mounting, unpaid medical bills), due to an illness. These same people cannot get the medical care they require, even in cases of terminal illness. I also reminded her that 32 million people are uninsured in America today. Someday she could be one of them.
In response, the thirty or forty-something year old woman said "That's too bad. I feel sorry for them, I really do. But it's not my problem."
Does she really "feel sorry for them"? I don't think so. The 32 million people that I reference are simply numbers in the heads of people who have not been truly affected by the plight of the uninsured. I deeply believe that this woman, and others holding those petitions, would change their minds if one of their loved ones: a mother, a sister, a sick child, was a part of that 32 million statistic.
Circulating petitions stating that Health Reform is "Unconstitutional" is the ultimate Republican spin. In my first year as a law student at UC Law School 13 years ago, I was instructed that the US Constitution included a Bankruptcy Clause because the drafters acknowledged that losing all of one's financial resources through job loss, or sickness, or failure to keep a business afloat, could quite literally lead a person to suicide. Bankruptcy was the merciful solution provided by the government to relieve a citizen in that time of stress.
But now, for some reason, a person's right to be slaughtered by medical bills (more than half of all bankruptcies are the result of unpaid medical bills) is Constitutionally PROTECTED? That's a farce. It's a lie.
The private insurance companies have made a killing on sick Americans through unjust policies regarding pre-existing conditions and countless other profiteering tactics. Politicians like John Boehner support these money making private companies and convince Americans that their corruption is somehow Constitutionally protected. The Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves.
The United States of America is the only industrialized Democracy that does not require the right of basic health care to its citizens. So if this mandate is so "Unconstitutional" and demands repeal, then why have no other industrialized nations required such repeal based on their respective (Democratic) Constitutions?
I have said it many times: a society and its government is only as strong as its treatment of its most vulnerable citizens. Case in point, the Nazi regime. Only the strong and the young were valued in that Godless system. There is something very dark about saying one "sympathizes" with a fellow citizen and then denying his or her access to basic medical care.
Finally, I say to the healthy woman who told me that "she feels sorry for the 32 million" but that "it's not (her) problem": someday it WILL be your problems. You will grow old and/or sick and not have proper coverage, or your loved ones will need medical care and not have coverage. It's not enough that you supposedly sympathize with people in these sad situations. As Americans, we must EMPATHIZE with their plight, recognizing that someday it will be us, or our loved ones in the same predicament.
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