An American Health Care Story. Potholes are More Important than People

I'm sure there were thousands upon thousands who marched against the inception of Medicare by FDR in the 1930's. If we're going to let the old people die without government run Medicare (Glenn Beck is opposed to Medicare and Social Security for anyone including people in their 80's and 90's), then I want a tax break. Tax breaks or value from my government - I want one or the other. However, as a moral person, one must consider the consequences of that trade.

Morally speaking, I'd rather get the value from government run "Medicare for all" (as an option to private plans - not a substitution) rather than condemn those whose poor luck it is that bad health affected them before the magic age of 65. Of course, I can only imagine what it would be like to be in dire need of health care at an age of less than 65 and either not get the treatment I need, or face financial ruin as a result. Although I have had good health my entire life, I have the capacity to empathize with those facing that nightmare. I have the capacity to understand what it might be like to be the parent of a sick child working to raise money (beg from the rich) to fund the medical care of their children because the private insurers only pay so much benefit (see: rationing by the private health insurers).

Last week, I found myself incredulous walking into a Quartzite Arizona mini mart. Having purchased a sandwich for the road the cashier pitched me for a donation to the Phoenix Children's hospital, and then I looked up see to a large picture of a child and a caption, "Please give me a chance". I put in a buck - a conflicted buck - why is there a need for me to do this?

My grandfather began suffering from terminal Parkinsons disease at the unfortunate age of 59. He had worked on a farm in Idaho and then for years as a cook in Salt Lake City UT. In 1955, he, my grandmother and their 3 children moved to Inglewood, CA. They migrated to Orange County in the 60's and he opened up an Ice Cream shop in old town Fullerton California. When the Parkinsons hit, he had worked his ass off nearly his entire life - from a child on a farm to an entrepreneur in Orange County. He had saved money. He had whatever form of health insurance was available to him at that time. When the health insurance benefits were exhausted (yep, private health insurance practices rationing of benefits), the rule was (and is) that the next resource to exhaust was their lifetime of savings and assets. All of their assets and cash were drained to $0 in short order.

I remember my grandfather when he was in a convalescent home dying in the early 70's. I really enjoyed the visits despite the fact he didn't say much to me. My grandmother would bring him a Snickers bar on a regular basis (he was all too happy to give me on every visit). That is my only memory of my grandfather. After his death, my grandmother went on to scrape by for the next 30 years - completely dependent on a Social Security check and Medicare. If the nut wingers had their way in the 1930's, she would not have had that thin safety net created by that government under FDR.

My grandmother is the personal hero of my life, and in my view, her value of independence and self reliance reflect that of most Americans. She lost everything she had worked for in her life and took it on the chin gracefully. Never a complaint - ever. She never spoke of her hardships or of the financial ruin that my grandfather's illness precipitated. Truly American qualities - pride and independence. To describe her generosity is difficult. She was the most generous person I've ever met. If she thought I needed her last dime, she would have gladly offered it to me. In my opinion, she represented the greatness of American culture - we revere personal strength and self reliance.

Fortunately for my grandmother, her children were able to help her when Social Security and Medicare were not sufficient to cover hearing aids that were badly needed or other unexpected expenses that occurred from time to time. Her children's participation in her personal finances were an affront to her. Always reluctant to accept any help, she felt as though she had lost her dignity - even as extremely humble as she was.

The fact is, if she had been in any other first world county, her assets that would carry her into the golden years of her life - the assets that she and her late husband had worked their whole lives to attain, would have remained intact along with her dignity.

My grandparents were Americans and like most Americans they worked for 50 years, paid taxes, raised kids, planned ahead, and saved money for their retirement. They never asked for handouts or exceptions. Their solemn pride of achieving their humble dream was destroyed by a random and tragic event - congenital disease.

This story is a personal story and does not address the far more tragic circumstances that our current private health care system has subjected its customers to. Life saving treatments (aka - the intentional killing of their customers) are denied regularly as managed care executives get rich from bonuses as a direct result. It does not discuss the methodology used to deny coverage to insured persons based on unknown pre-existing conditions that their customer failed to disclose (did I mention the word "unknown"?). It does not discuss the fact that the health insurance lobbies pushed a law through that prevents any legal liability from deaths that occur as a direct result of their denial of life saving treatments. This a story about who we are as Americans and what we value.

In order for civilization to exist, government must exist as well. To that end, simply attacking the existence of government because of its shortcomings and failures is short sighted. Devotion to the status quo as opposed to reform, appears to be the only solution proposed by nutwing pundits. Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Glenn Beck don't think reform is necessary. They propose no solutions. Not even conservative solutions based on profit or voucher based reforms are offered - nothing. This system we have now is fine for them. They are not at risk of suffering from financial ruin as a result of a health condition. But rather than propose reforms that are badly needed and offer business based alternatives to address this crisis of cost and efficiency in American health care, they exercise the intellectual and moral cowardice of taking shots at nearly every idea that others propose to reform a broken health care system - without having the empathy to put themselves in the shoes of the non-ultra rich. Without any compassion for those who lose their lives to the decisions of managed care executives. Without any compassion for the families of the victims that have no legal recourse against the corporate murderers - by law. To them, the system is fine the way it is, and they lead a throng of proud Americans into an angry tirade about anything that smells of government takeover or intervention. Their theme always reduced to a paranoid view of an adversarial role of government. All government intervention is evil is their cry, rather than conservative government reform that yields better representation. It is the cry of the status quo - helping only insurers to kill more customers with no consequences and enrich shareholders. Rather than focus on real conservative initiatives like a balanced budget amendment and campaign finance reform, they engage in the use of Nazi effigies, cultural and racial paranoia. These theatrics do not offer a rational second voice or idea that can contribute to the conversation about addressing real problems that exist in the American health care system - including the overall cost (Britian's NHS is half the cost per person than our private system). Their voice does not offer a conservative solution to reforming a broken health care system. Thus, the American people are left with a choice between a "big government solution" and following the angry mob leading pundits who throw stones at every idea to reform the health care system while hiding securely in the intellectual safe haven of supporting the status quo.

However, the fact is that without government, we don't have publicly a funded justice system, police department, postal system, fire department, road maintenance, universal education for children, and Medicare (public option) for the elderly. We place special emphasis on protecting these values with tax dollars. Most Americans, even those who oppose "Medicare for all", support the use of government in these highly valued government services. Many analogies can expose the hypocrisy of supporting these government services while attacking government intervention in health care. Here is the first of many to come:

I am almost certain that if my grandmother, when my grandfather was dying prematurely (how dare he contract the disease prior to the magic age of 65!) of Parkinsons, had a choice between watching their life's work go up in flames along with her dignity and having the state fix potholes along he 91 freeway, I'm sure she would have opted to let the potholes remain in the freeway. If she had a choice to trade her life's work for a public postal system, she'd dump stamps for the private Pony Express. If she had a choice between her dignity for the remainder of her 30 years on this rock and having the fire department put out the flames of her burning house, she'd let it burn. If your luck runs out, which choice would you make? What government service would you trade for your entire life's work?