We cannot wait
We cannot wait another year, another month, another week, or even another day. We should have done this yesterday, last week, last month, or last year. We must fix our health care system, and we must fix it now.
I am tired of lies, of fear mongering. So . . .
To those of you who fear helping the uninsured will somehow threaten your insurance, I say to you: the truth that has been hidden from you for too long; you are living on a razor blade. In the snap of a finger, you too could be uninsured. As the broken system crumbles and buries us in debt, inequity, and corporate profiteering, the ranks of the uninsured will swell. Those of you who fight change today will beg for it tomorrow.
To those of you who fear a bureaucrat between you and your doctor, I say to you: get your head out of your ass. There are scores of bureaucrats tying your doctor’s hands right now; and these bureaucrats get bonuses for denying care. They aren’t government bureaucrats, they work for insurance companies.
To those of you who say we should not interfere with the free market, I say to you: the free market has no place profiting off of death and suffering. Insurance can only make money for their shareholders and multi-million dollar bonuses for their executives by denying the care that they have contracted to provide. It is a war crime of class warfare. If you don’t want a public option, you do not need to buy it. But some of us want a choice.
To those of you who think the congress is seriously setting up death camps for senior citizens by paying for end-of-line consultations with their doctors, I say to you: we will all die when our time comes. It is OK to die with dignity. It is OK to ask your doctor when enough is enough. It is OK to understand when the sophistication of our science and the technology of our medicines have smashed against the brick wall of nature. It should be OK to ask your doctor if the fight can be won; or if it cannot.
Health care is a mess. I know because I both work and live in it.
I do not pretend to have the answers. I know we will not all agree. But it is time to end the lies, the attacks, the scare tactics. And it is time to start action, because today is already too late; and waiting until tomorrow is unimaginable.
I am tired of lies, of fear mongering. So . . .
To those of you who fear helping the uninsured will somehow threaten your insurance, I say to you: the truth that has been hidden from you for too long; you are living on a razor blade. In the snap of a finger, you too could be uninsured. As the broken system crumbles and buries us in debt, inequity, and corporate profiteering, the ranks of the uninsured will swell. Those of you who fight change today will beg for it tomorrow.
To those of you who fear a bureaucrat between you and your doctor, I say to you: get your head out of your ass. There are scores of bureaucrats tying your doctor’s hands right now; and these bureaucrats get bonuses for denying care. They aren’t government bureaucrats, they work for insurance companies.
To those of you who say we should not interfere with the free market, I say to you: the free market has no place profiting off of death and suffering. Insurance can only make money for their shareholders and multi-million dollar bonuses for their executives by denying the care that they have contracted to provide. It is a war crime of class warfare. If you don’t want a public option, you do not need to buy it. But some of us want a choice.
To those of you who think the congress is seriously setting up death camps for senior citizens by paying for end-of-line consultations with their doctors, I say to you: we will all die when our time comes. It is OK to die with dignity. It is OK to ask your doctor when enough is enough. It is OK to understand when the sophistication of our science and the technology of our medicines have smashed against the brick wall of nature. It should be OK to ask your doctor if the fight can be won; or if it cannot.
Health care is a mess. I know because I both work and live in it.
I do not pretend to have the answers. I know we will not all agree. But it is time to end the lies, the attacks, the scare tactics. And it is time to start action, because today is already too late; and waiting until tomorrow is unimaginable.
posted by Wil | 6:22 PM
7 Comments:
Amen! I'm one of the "haves" right now, but know full well that I could be a "have not" in the blink of an eye if my husband loses his big company with nice insurance job. Thanks for the encouragement to speak up about it.
*applause*
I've been a have and a have-not and being a have-not bankrupted me, forced me out of my home and closed my business. It didn't take any time at all to lose everything after a medical crisis. I'm currently on medicare and I would take it over the private health insurance I had any day. I jump through far fewer hoops with medicare than I did with Blue Cross.
Amen! I am lucky enough to have good coverage at the moment, but know plenty of those who don't. We need to fix this now, not just because things could change quickly for any of us, but because it's the right thing to do.
*Holding glowing pump in the air in lieu of a lighter*
AMEN!!!!
Double Amen.
Don't forget those who are scared it would introduce (GASP) health care rationing. Wake up...we already have rationing thanks to copays, referrals, and durable medical equipment limits among other things.
"To those of you who fear a bureaucrat between you and your doctor, I say to you: get your head out of your ass. There are scores of bureaucrats tying your doctor’s hands right now; and these bureaucrats get bonuses for denying care. They aren’t government bureaucrats, they work for insurance companies."
This is totally, completely right on message! Why aren't those who are proposing reform using this argument? Why don't they have some Type1 folks talking about how they cannot get what they need with the current private only system? Losing choice? How can we lose choice when the only choice we have is the plan our company offers or nothing?
It's pretty surprising, actually, how off-message the administration has allowed this thing to get.
Bravo! I am in the dear old state of PA, home to the righteous yellers at all the health care conferences. (They also love their guns, but that's a whole different story...)
I am tired of fighting the health insurance industry on behalf of my 6 year old Type 1.
I am tired of justifying that yes, she does check her blood sugar 7-8 times a day and may I have more strips please sir?
I am tired of asking them, pretty please, for a glucagon kit so she may have one for school. The one insurance worker actually asked me on the phone why I couldn't put one in her backpack every morning "just like her lunch" he told me.
I am tired of being so tired with all the insurance, run around and bureaucratic mess they have made for Type 1 diabetics.
I do it because I can and because I love her and I will fight to the very end making sure she has what she needs. I want every insurance executive to see my daughter's face when they ration, her face when they decide care, her face when they would rather care for her complications instead of giving me the resources so we can be preventative in our care of her.
We need options in this country. We need people who see us struggling with this current system. We need change and I think that's what people fear the most, a change.
Post a Comment
<< Home