One of the “issues of the day,” so to speak, that makes me the most angry, sad, flustered, etc. all at once, is the healthcare issue. It is waaaay up there on the list. When I think or talk about it for too long (and a very short amount of time constitutes “too long” for me), I get so riled up, and just stay in a state of agitation until I manage to shake it somehow. I don’t know what to do with all that energy that the anger and sadness produces in me. I end up feeling so powerless - there’s nothing I personally can do, and I hate that.
I believe that a responsible government, first and foremost, takes care of its citizens. I believe that all U.S. citizens should have access to comprehensive medical care free of charge. I believe this to the core of my being and nothing will change my mind.
I get Molly Holzschlag’s RSS feed. Yes, Molly Holzschlag, the prominent web standards advocate. “What does this have to do with healthcare?” you ask. Well, today I read this in Molly’s feed:
I have no medical insurance and cannot find anyone to insure me. I am a U.S. citizen, so there is no health care for me whatsoever unless I become completely impoverished. But I’m in the middle class, unmarried, and have no access to regular medical care. This problem has gone on for years now, and I believe at the core of my soul that my challenge of this moment, on this day, has everything to do with my nation’s inability to care for its own.
I read that, and now I’m once again filled with that angry energy and nowehere to put it. I want to make it better for Molly, for my dad, and the millions of other Americans dealing with sources of stress that should not exist.
After my dad had his stroke, he refused to go to the hospital, because he knew it would be “too expensive.” For two days he refused, and in the meantime further endangered his own life (for example, he fell getting up out of a chair, as a result of impaired balance due to the stroke) and the lives of others (e.g., my mom’s mental health was absolutely shot; also, he was driving - thank god he didn’t get into a car accident, who knows who he might’ve killed). It took my mom calling me, nearly hysterical, begging me to try to “talk some sense into him” - which I tried to do, but when he spoke to me in response, I could barely make out any words because his speech had become so unintelligible - and an intervention of sorts, to finally get him to go. (The intervention was a friend of the family going over to my parents’ house the following morning to help my mom physically force my dad into the car if necessary, and drive them to the ER.) In the hospital, they treated him like a second-class citizen - which, being without insurance, I guess that’s what he was. These days, my mom’s mental health is slowly improving (I think) - at least, she’s not taking Valium every day anymore - but she has lost about 12 pounds and is getting dangerously thin. And of course the medical bills are sky high.
This should never be allowed to happen in the wealthiest nation in the world.
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