Saturday, October 20, 2007

Just who deserves SCHIP and national healthcare? Tell me now.

As a co-worker told me, it's all my fault that I am bitching and moaning about my $1000 deductible and 80/20 co-pay. I should have saved more money to cover the carpal tunnel surgery I must have as a result of being glued to a keyboard working on deadlines for the past 14 years. After all, he said, national health care is a communist plot and this is America and nothing here is free, nor should it be. If I don’t like it I should leave.

It's all my fault that I did not save enough to anticipate my daughter's divorce from her alcoholic and abusive husband, and the fact that in the past 1 ½ years all my children and their children came home to my house to lick their wounds. One came home to survive job loss. So what, we fed a family of 14 on a salary that once only fed and housed 4, that should be easy, right?

Then, it's all my fault because I could not afford a $1300 water softener, that would have prevented my water heater (in hard water Texas) from burning out and corroding the heating element in place so that instead of replacing the heating element, we had to replace the whole water heater last week.

It's all my fault that it cost $260 for a plumber to install my new $244 Home Depot water heater. (Other local plumbers wanted to charge $800 to put in the cheap a** water heater we bought). Thankfully, we shopped around and went with cold showers). And in the same week, it's my fault that the timing belt on my car (with 167,000 miles on it) broke 3 days after the water heater went out and cost $762 to repair. After all, I should not be driving such an old car. And so, of course, it's my fault that my mortgage payment is now late this month and I'll have to pay a late charge because again, I did not save enough. Before Bush, I did save enough, but we have slowly but surely eaten through our savings with medical bills.

It's my fault, I should have saved more and done more with less. It's my fault that I can't stretch 1 lb of ground meat to feed 14 people in a fashion better than casseroles. It's my fault that milk is $4 a gallon. God forbid I should want those expensive fresh vegetables on my salary. Instead, let’s buy Big Pharma vitamins.

Again, it's my fault, I should have gotten bigger raises and saved more while I took care of your mother, father, brother, sister, child, and wiped their behinds, gave them pain medicine, cared for them and listened and empathized, taking pride in my skills as an under-appreciated and over-worked nurse.

It's my fault because I should have been an MD or a pharmacy representative, and then I would have made enough money to care for my family, and have time to stay home and take care of my 91 year old mother. Instead, taking care of Mom was a family group effort. Why? Because we did not save enough money to hire someone to sit with her, we did that ourselves, with missed work hours and missed wages. Oh, but that's my fault too.

Until Americans understand that it is a moral imperative that we make health care a non-profit service, and a right for all citizens, all of us will be making choices that cause us to lose wages, job opportunities and the like so that we can care for ill family members by ourselves.

I want to see you anti-national health care people and anti-SCHIP people line folks up on national television and show me, point them out in front of God and everybody, which of these people does not deserve health care? Then explain, without waffling and beating around the bush, exactly why this or that person that you have lined up in front of you, does not deserve health care. It’s their fault because why?

Instead of swift-boating families behind their backs, why not do it in person? Surely that is ever so much more effective. I dare you.

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