Up Close with the Health Care Crisis
This will be short - it's busy times and I'm working on a blog post on a different issue, but I can't let an event from yesterday pass without comment. A woman who comes into my classroom to clean at the end of every day - let's call her Veronika - reminded me of what it means to be without health care.
Veronika is always friendly to me, and the students all say she’s "very sweet". She smiles while she works and is patient with teachers and students who are not as thoughtful with their trash as they should be. She and I usually talk a little as she works in my room, and on Friday our conversation turned to how tired she's been lately and that her feet have really been giving her trouble. I suggested she get new shoes and she explained that she'd been to Foot Locker a few times and tried different running shoes but just can't quite get her feet to feel good. Thinking she probably needs some orthotic inserts, I asked her if she'd seen her doctor. Veronika can't afford health insurance, she tells me, in large part because she spends so much money on insurance for her children. She can't see a doctor about her feet without jeopardizing her children's health care.
Veronika ends every workday in pain and spends weekends "off my feet as much as I can." Clearly someone in her situation, who has insurance would see a doctor. That she can't afford health care is not the cleaning company's fault – the world’s most prosperous country ought to provide every citizen basic health care. Certainly European nations less affluent than the United States find a way to do so.
Conservative friends and colleagues often tell me that many uninsured voluntarily elect not to buy health insurance. The “plight of the uninsured” they say, is exaggerated. I suppose that can be made to seem a statistical truth. But the people I meet without insurance desperately want and need health care, and can't afford it. What parent of three wouldn’t choose health care in a nation that made it available? Veronika and the few who do elect not to purchase health care are an automobile accident away from financial ruin, for themselves and the hospitals that go into debt when fees for emergency room care go unpaid.
Many employers I’m sure offer health care (as Veronika’s may) though the available packages likely vary in quality and scope. Perhaps with some investigation and negotiating, Veronika might find she could work out a plan with her company that might work for her. But ultimately, the employment relationship shouldn’t be complicated by the health care issue – pleading for a basic human right demeans the employee and strips her of her dignity, while for the employer the situation is equally bad as the company struggles to make difficult decisions about who gets what coverage using limited resources. The solution seems to be to remove health insurance from the employment relationship, thereby eliminating a potential conflict while ensuring citizens coverage when they’re in between jobs, not just when they’re employed.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said in a speech before Congress in 1944 that America had done a fair job of providing the inalienable rights of life and liberty but had failed to ensure the right to the “pursuit of happiness” promised in the Declaration of Independence. FDR’s successor, Harry Truman, proposed a universal health care plan to Congress. And still more than 6 decades later, 47 million Americans lack health insurance – nearly one-sixth of the population. This is shameful. What nation committed to equality can long continue to neglect its citizenry?
I believe a wealthy society has a moral duty to care for its members. In this, we are failing. Yes, the House of Representatives deserves credit this week for renewing SCHIP (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for lower-income families) [UPDATE - Congress passed a final version on 2/4/09 for review by President Obama], an action that was twice vetoed by George W. Bush but will be signed into law by Barack Obama in the coming days. But Veronika’s situation is a reminder that partial measures like SCHIP aren’t the solution to the problem. President-elect Obama will take office with a deepening recession, war in Palestine, and other unforeseen problems to deal with, but I remain hopeful that he can use his ability to inspire and cajole to move Congress toward health coverage for all Americans.
Universal Health Care opponents scream socialism at such proposals. Conservatives would do well, however, to read the words written into the Constitution’s preamble by a bunch of capitalists assembled in Philadelphia in 1787: “We the people, in order to… promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” Then they should meet Veronika, who would tell them how hard it is to enjoy freedom when all your free time is spent off your feet.
Veronika is always friendly to me, and the students all say she’s "very sweet". She smiles while she works and is patient with teachers and students who are not as thoughtful with their trash as they should be. She and I usually talk a little as she works in my room, and on Friday our conversation turned to how tired she's been lately and that her feet have really been giving her trouble. I suggested she get new shoes and she explained that she'd been to Foot Locker a few times and tried different running shoes but just can't quite get her feet to feel good. Thinking she probably needs some orthotic inserts, I asked her if she'd seen her doctor. Veronika can't afford health insurance, she tells me, in large part because she spends so much money on insurance for her children. She can't see a doctor about her feet without jeopardizing her children's health care.
Veronika ends every workday in pain and spends weekends "off my feet as much as I can." Clearly someone in her situation, who has insurance would see a doctor. That she can't afford health care is not the cleaning company's fault – the world’s most prosperous country ought to provide every citizen basic health care. Certainly European nations less affluent than the United States find a way to do so.
Conservative friends and colleagues often tell me that many uninsured voluntarily elect not to buy health insurance. The “plight of the uninsured” they say, is exaggerated. I suppose that can be made to seem a statistical truth. But the people I meet without insurance desperately want and need health care, and can't afford it. What parent of three wouldn’t choose health care in a nation that made it available? Veronika and the few who do elect not to purchase health care are an automobile accident away from financial ruin, for themselves and the hospitals that go into debt when fees for emergency room care go unpaid.
Many employers I’m sure offer health care (as Veronika’s may) though the available packages likely vary in quality and scope. Perhaps with some investigation and negotiating, Veronika might find she could work out a plan with her company that might work for her. But ultimately, the employment relationship shouldn’t be complicated by the health care issue – pleading for a basic human right demeans the employee and strips her of her dignity, while for the employer the situation is equally bad as the company struggles to make difficult decisions about who gets what coverage using limited resources. The solution seems to be to remove health insurance from the employment relationship, thereby eliminating a potential conflict while ensuring citizens coverage when they’re in between jobs, not just when they’re employed.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said in a speech before Congress in 1944 that America had done a fair job of providing the inalienable rights of life and liberty but had failed to ensure the right to the “pursuit of happiness” promised in the Declaration of Independence. FDR’s successor, Harry Truman, proposed a universal health care plan to Congress. And still more than 6 decades later, 47 million Americans lack health insurance – nearly one-sixth of the population. This is shameful. What nation committed to equality can long continue to neglect its citizenry?
I believe a wealthy society has a moral duty to care for its members. In this, we are failing. Yes, the House of Representatives deserves credit this week for renewing SCHIP (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for lower-income families) [UPDATE - Congress passed a final version on 2/4/09 for review by President Obama], an action that was twice vetoed by George W. Bush but will be signed into law by Barack Obama in the coming days. But Veronika’s situation is a reminder that partial measures like SCHIP aren’t the solution to the problem. President-elect Obama will take office with a deepening recession, war in Palestine, and other unforeseen problems to deal with, but I remain hopeful that he can use his ability to inspire and cajole to move Congress toward health coverage for all Americans.
Universal Health Care opponents scream socialism at such proposals. Conservatives would do well, however, to read the words written into the Constitution’s preamble by a bunch of capitalists assembled in Philadelphia in 1787: “We the people, in order to… promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” Then they should meet Veronika, who would tell them how hard it is to enjoy freedom when all your free time is spent off your feet.
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