Healthcare Bill Needs Discussed, Debated, Deliberated
I am not a lawyer or career politician so I will share what
I know about the healthcare debate in stories of people I have known.
When I was in graduate school, part of my job in the office included overseeing the affairs of two Russian scholars. They had barely arrived in our country in the Fall of 1991 when the Russian coup crumbled communism and irrevocably changed the lives of their families and comrades. Concerned, one gentleman would stay long past our closing hours to hit the fax button over and over again until one piece of paper slid through the machine and through the wires across the ocean. It was often after midnight that he succeeded. As time passed, faxing got easier and he would send letters to his wife about his life here in the U.S.
In the spring of 1992, the Soviet Union was officially gone and we were able to bring Vladimir’s wife over to visit. In her broken English, she told us that what made her cry were the letters detailing the feasts of ice cream Vladimir enjoyed in our school cafeteria while she stood in line to get government rationed potatoes while their economic system stabilized – a system mimicking our capitalist, free market based on private enterprise fueled by supply and demand NOT the interference of central government which FAILED.
I tell this story to illustrate our current healthcare. While it has its problems and costs way too much, we have a feast of options right now. We can get MRIs when we need them and surgeries, no matter what age. If this healthcare bill goes through, our banquet table is going to be reduced to a line for potatoes and who gets those potatoes or tests will be decided by whether you are the right age (15-40 by presidential health care adviser Ezekiel Emmanuel has been listed as optimal. Ouch! I’m 40 already), whether you have the right kind of cancer (yes, cancer treatment is rationed on page 272 as well as restricting the enrollment of those with special needs on page 354), and whether you have had your counseling on dying gracefully (as mandated every 5 years to seniors). These are only a few of the things that tell me that there are many red flags not being dealt with and if they are indicators of the times to come, I am truly scared.
Take Gisela R. McBride. This sweet older German woman stood up in the Right Online Conference I attended in Pittsburgh this last weekend, Aug. 14-15. Sitting in a break-out session on technology in relation to healthcare, one speaker brought up the bill proposed dealing with “Net Neutrality.” Far from neutral, the bill (HR3458) will allow the government to take down any site deemed inappropriate by its standards upon notice by an individual citizen with any cause for the slightest concern. This bill is actually larger in printed size than the healthcare bill.
“I was seven when Hitler came into power. The first thing he took away was our constitution, then came civil rights,” shares the petite woman, now 83, who drove herself over four hours to come to the conference. Hearing her relate her past to our present fills me with chills and honestly, denial. No, it can’t be that bad. And, then, I come to the part of the healthcare bill that outlines on page 425-429 just how the government will be able to interfere in our end-of-life options and dictate just how we will die, among other things. Yep. RED flags, RED flags, RED flags. Doesn’t red mean STOP? Let’s think about this. Can’t we address these concerns first? Last year my dad had his hip replaced. I wonder if it will even be an option for men his age next year.
People like to make fun of Joe the Plumber but I met him too at the conference in Pittsburgh. He was a very articulate man who told us not to bash Democrats, but simply that we need more government accountability. He said we need to take a look back at our constitution, which is founded on the principles of small government and decreased taxation. That foundation is the direct opposite of this bill, which increases taxes and grows government influence in every crack and crevice of our lives. And, the government is digging in deeper by the day. Pretty much in any industry out there.
And, so that is my two cents. I have not been paid and nor did I manufacture these stories. I probably won’t change any minds that are set on central healthcare but I would like to at least consider a pause, a slowing down, until some really concerning elements are dealt with, discussed, debated and acted upon rationally.
Picture by Skye820: Joe the Plumber at RightOnline 2009
