universal healthcare speech, a work in progress
this is something i started on yesterday and plan to flesh out more in the future. comments and suggestions are welcome, and facts and figures will be provided when i get to the meat of it.
Intro:
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your time and attention. I’m here to speak about something that I feel is very wrong with our society, and something that I think needs to be addressed: healthcare, and our limited access to it. It is my belief that healthcare is not privilege, but a right. I also believe that with a universal healthcare plan, not only do individuals benefit, but so does our entire nation. Less people going into debt and/or bankruptcy to care for themselves or their sick loved ones means less people feeling the desperation that is at the heart of many crimes; people don’t steal bread to feed their families if their families are fed.
Personal Experience:
I’d like to begin by saying that I have health insurance. I’m in an ever-decreasing majority in that respect. I have lived without health insurance for many years, but thankfully I was healthy during those years. But here’s what I’ve experienced over the past three years with insurance: decreasing benefits with increasing premiums. In fact, this year I am paying about 40% more in my monthly premium while my deductible has increased by a third compared to just one year ago. The level of service I can expect has remained unchanged. But my out-of-pocket expenses make it hard for me to justify a doctor’s visit if I fall ill. I have to ask myself if I’m sick enough to pay the expense, allowing any illnesses I may get to reach crisis status if it doesn’t get better on its own. I believe I’m in the majority in this balancing act as well.
But I share majority status in thought as well. Recent polls show that more than 60% of Americans believe in some form of universal healthcare system. As for the other 30-40%, I assume these are the same people who believe Iraq is going swimmingly, so, uh, more power to them. But for the rest of us, healthcare should be about health, not money. And our healthcare dollars can be better spent on preventative medicine than on marketing and the extreme administrative costs that come from a fractured system. Or on the bandaid we give to the extremely sick in the form of emergency care, the cost of which dwarfs the costs of keeping everyone healthy in the first place.
The Capitalist/Communist False Dichotomy:
U.S. Model:
International Theory:
The Myth of the Bootstrap:
Action:
posted by leomange at 1:22 PM
7 Comments:
I totally agree. It frustrates me that physicians in other countries get their education paid for and then work for a short time in their country to pay back the debt. Then, those doctors move to America land of no ceilings and make their fortunes. I guess if we make it that easy then why not.
I think socialized medicine would also reduce the number of unwarranted lawsuits against doctors (the way it is now, doctors have millions and the average person wants some of it).
My husband is an EMT and he could get sued if he stopped on the highway to help someone and they died anyway. He could also get sued if he DIDN'T pull over to help. It really makes it hard to want to help anyone.
Finally, and this one I may come across as the most unsympathetic bitch (and sometimes I am). I hate to see people having "benefits" for families who have some illness and NO health insurance. I recently was asked to donate to a family whose dad had a heart attack, four kids, no insurance and I happen to know the dad worked at the same place where my husband works and chose to forego the insurance. Now, we struggle to pay it every week so we are secure (for our kids sake) and it pisses me off that other people don't take that responsibility and then want everyone to "pitch in".
I KNOW it is not the Christian thing but it's the way I feel. arghhh.
ps. I do think insurance cost is OUTRAGEOUS and they make it soooo difficult to get anything paid for anyway. It SUX being a grown up.
9:59 AM
well, i think the insurance system is a costly scam at heart. however, dealing with the reality of the system, if you have a chance to have employer-subsidized insurance, it's a matter of personal responsibility to take care of you and yours. i firmly believe that your example is the exception...
i'll say this, due to my employer's subidization, i'm paying probably 1/5th of the cost of my plan. doesn't change the fact that if i go to the doctor i'll be hosed up to the 1000 deductible, but if something catastrophic happens it'll be nice not to be responsible for the 25000 or whatever.
but the current system is a rip off, and we're entrenched in it, as i plan on elaborating on in future posts.
it's ironic that somebody who works for emergency medical care would take the paycheck and deny the medical benefits offered... i feel sorry for his situation (heart probs, high med bills, etc.), but there's some truth to the saying that life's as hard as you make it. not 100%, but a little self-responsibility goes a long way...
11:36 AM
my husband is a part time EMT, his full time job is with a printing company. the guy who had the heart attack works for the printing company.
my husband would love to quit his "real" job and work full time for the ambulance service but we could not afford the pay cut.
By "benefits" mentioned in the first comment, i meant the kind of benefits that people have where they auction off donated goods, etc and pocket the cash. Not benefits as in job benefits (thought that might be confusing).
There are a lot of families in our area that say they can't afford insurance and so they opt out. But then they purchase frivilous items like renting 12 DVDs a week or something like that. I am not saying they shouldn't purchase items for enjoyment and hey it's their money but we all make choices and have to live with the consequences. If you CHOOSE to forego insurance and instead put in a brand new hot tub then why should I pay for your medical bills when an emergency happens? (I do have the little angel on my shoulder answering "because that is what Jesus would do.")
My aunt called last week and asked me donate something for a "benefit" for one of her friends. I didn't even ask what for, I said "yes" since it was my aunt asking. When she picked up the item for donation, I did ask "now,what is this for?" and she said "oh, Johnny's garage burnt down and he didn't have insurance on it and he lost all his tools."
I had already donated the gift set but I was ready to take it back at that point. Even worse, I found out later that the garage burned down due to an improperly extinguished cigarette. (a peripheral subject I know but along the lines of insurance.)
11:54 AM
i think the real question here is personal responsibility v. personal rights. i contend that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. i understand and agree that if you have the ability to take care of yourself (ie, insure yourself), you should. and choosing frivolous material goods over the well-being of your family is silly and dangerous. but that's assuming there's a choice, and i don't think the millions without health insurance are lacking, by and large, by choice. i know that when i was without, it was a matter of being unable to afford it. now, i feel i'm underinsured, but i had to choose between absurd premiums or absurd deductible...
there's a quote i like, not sure where it originated, but it goes something like this:
"canada, where a pack of cigarettes is ten dollars, but a heart transplant is free."
well, i'm losing my focus here. thanks for your input, princess... i see where you're coming from, and it helps me see some issues i may need to address as i continue building my soapbox...
2:16 PM
as an after-thought, and not to be snarky, i need to add that no one is immune to making bad choices. i've made a doozy or two in my time, and they were my choices and my consequences to take, but i've benefitted from others being there to soften the blow. family and friends who let me make my mistakes, tried to steer me in the right direction, and in the end didn't say 'i told you so'. sometimes when you're down, you just need a hand, not another kick in the gut. even if 'you only have yourself to blame', which rarely, if ever, happens since we don't exist in a vacuum.
4:41 PM
It's the devil and angel sitting on my shoulders. I know what the "right" thing to do is according to my heart but my brain believes something else.
If a child doesn't have shoes because their parents are idiots, I'll buy them some shoes. But, I can still be pissed about what idiots the parents are for spending their money at the bar instead of taking care of their families.
When my husband and I were young and only had ourselves to take care of, we made bad choices too. As soon as we had kids, we started making the best choices for them. One of those choices is that my husband works at a job he doesn't love because they offer good insurance (at a price) and a decent wage. There are plenty of other things we give up to have healthy, happy, (and adorable if I might add) kids but it's a responsibility we knew we would have when we chose to have kids.
8:52 PM
i see where you're coming from, but i don't like giving up on dreams because of the necessities of reality. i already do (well, delay my dreams maybe?) without even having kids, and having that dependent person definitely forces (or should force) you to take care of their needs before your selfish desires to: get drunk, play poker, smoke near oily rags in your garage...
just looking for a little representation for my taxation, and it ain't coming out of the war in iraq, and on and on and on...
but i do appreciate your perspective. thanks.
7:14 PM
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