healthcare in the good ol' u.s. of a and how it affects me directly

well, this is the topic of the moment isn't it? so what would be more a propos, than an average, middle class citizen of this country, directly involved in the debate due to the healthcare bill's indirect involvement of everyone who calls him/herself a citizen of the united states, to sound off on it and how it affects him personally? because really, if we take everyone's position into account and see the polarizing effects that this bill has brought out in our society, then we see that it's people and their individual opinions, regardless of how inane or illogical they may be, that make up the core of this debate and they're the ones to decide it, whether it be by having encouraged they're representatives to pass the bill, or by trying to vote the representative out of office who did pass the bill that is so out of touch with the people, as the tea party members would most likely protest.


my opinion on the situation, oversimplified for this example of course, is that even if both positions are taken to an extreme, in the sense that you have extremists on each side blindly preaching their values, whether or not they know the reasoning behind it, much like in this video




at least on the side of universal healthcare, in spite of the fear of "government interference"(which is a misnomer saved for another blog post perhaps. anyone heard of a government program called medicaid?? hmmm...), people are being taken care of.

now i've never been a democrat, nor a republican, i'm a registered independent in fact, though party, nor alliegence should be incredibly important in my opinion when it comes to health care. why is this you say? well, health care is something that is in my opinion, a fundamental human right, because this "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" that we as americans swear upon, is directly affected by one's health and ability to carry out normal, quotidian affairs directed at achieving said happiness. Unless it's just some cruel joke, i'm sure the founding fathers upon writing that into the declaration of independence, didn't mean it in the sense of a carrot on a stick, but rather the pursuit of a personal, attainable happiness. one may pose the question: what does universal healthcare have to do with any of that? well, my retort would be to point out anyone who has had a cold or any other short term, curable malady, such as the flu, strep throat, etc, can attest to the debilitating nature of being sick in hopes of accomplishing anything. anyone who has been bed ridden for a week due to illness knows that it's no picnic and life goes from "the pursuit of happiness" to survival. now, if one were to expound this debilitating condition, turning it into something of a chronic, incurable nature, and then compound that with not being able to get treatment for the aforementioned malady, that's a whole different story, in fact, it's a travesty. even more so when you consider the surroundings; this isn't happening into some poverty ridden, far off country, this is occurring to people in our country, and more immediately, in our communities, to people we know personally, not just statistics. this is happening in america, a place where these people going under are surrounded by an incomparable wealth and abundance unseen in the rest of the world. consider this:

"That the country needs to reform its health care system is painfully obvious. At least 47 million Americans have no medical coverage, 75 million are underinsured with skeleton plans, and 86.7 million Americans have been uninsured for at least 6 months over last two years. There has been a dramatic rise increase in the uninsured rate in every state. Lack of health care coverage caused 45,000 deaths per year. Health care premiums shot up more than 90% between 2000 and 2007, while the profits of the 10 largest insurers increased 428 percent over the same period. Without real reform, there will be a 94% increase in health insurance premiums by 2020. Harvard researchers say 62% of all personal bankruptcies in the US were caused by health problems—and 78% of those filers had insurance. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, despite having the most expensive per capital health care in the world, the US in only ranked 37^th in the quality of care."

in berlin, germany where i've lived for the last 3 years, i randomly contracted pink eye one day, anyone that's had it recently, can attest to the fact that it's no fun. now pink eye is very curable and i was able to procure the necessary drugs for less than 10 euro if memory serves, and everything cleared up in one day, which made me think. people in third world countries are not so lucky as to have the access to those same drugs, therefore transforming a curable condition into something potentially serious. in america, not having insurance is our equivalent. the drugs are in reach, but aren't accessible, much in the same way that drugs aren't accessible in third world countries, albeit for different reasons, the bottom line is the same: people are not being helped.


i read this quote in an article in the new york times: and found it very accurate:

"In the broadest sense, insurance is meant to spread the costs of an individual’s misfortune — illness, death, fire, flood — across society."

When we start losing the plot, it's sometimes best to get back to the definition of something, to the root of it. at some point in time, someone invented this thing we now call "insurance" in order to safeguard people from catastrophes that no one person could ever prepare themselves for. nowadays, insurance companies will look for that loophole that allows them to deny payment, or at least to give the bare minimum. people can say this isn't true, and i understand people making a living, but the mere fact that someone can be denied health insurance due to the fact that they're already sick, i.e. a pre-existing condition, is something that, putting it bluntly, just seems inhumane, especially considering they are the ones who need help the most. of course, the rich will have to pay a bit more, and the rich don't like that, but when nobody is left to work in their factories, producing their ideas that earn them millions, (consider the example of the cotton farmer who makes a pittance for the raw materials he provides, about $25 a bale, to the designer who then sells a t shirt composed of that cotton for 100 dollars) what will they do then?

i have been living abroad for the better part of the last decade and have been therefore not directly affected by the staggering giant we call the u.s. healthcare system. i do know however what i've been "missing out on" if you could call it that. we as americans are told and learn by rote that we have the best healthcare system in the world. i know personally, that i had been indoctrinated enough by this idea that i was afraid to get a cavity filled in germany, another first world (to use an antiquated term) country and wanted to get it done in the united states before i left, where i had no insurance. well, i go to the dentist, uninsured, and am told that i have 6 cavities that need to get filled and that unless i want to look like a pirate, i.e. no silver and gold fillings, it's going to cost me 1900 dollars. i go to germany and have a dentist take a look, he says that i have one. one. single. cavity. it cost me 25 euro to get it filled and it could've been for free, however i chose to go the porcelain route (see pirate argument above).

now, there are 2 sides to this argument. once the possibility of profit is removed, so is the incentive to go above and beyond the call of duty so to speak. the other side of that coin is that once profit is introduced, there is the option of going too far for the sake of lining one's pockets. i can say this: the doctors and dentists in germany where i've lived, are not hard up for money. in fact, i'd venture to say that they are all still in the top 10% of earners in that country, and as long as the prestige that doctors receive for becoming doctors exists, there will be no less incentive to become a doctor (doctor shortages is another staple of the "don't socialize medecine" argument). the difference however between one cavity and six does seem significant though.

this blog post has become much longer than i originally intended, and there's still much more that i could say, but given all the links and supplemental reading within this blog, , and at the risk of boring my reader, i'll perhaps add something to this later. for now though, i'll hold my peace and hope you are out there weighing the options of all this. though the health care bill that has been passed is far from perfect, it is a step, and it is most of all, a stop to the inaction of the american government (consider that the last major bill passed was in the late 60s). the argument that something isn't perfect is not a good reason to do nothing at all. this bill is a much needed beginning, a jump off point. please treat it as such...