MoveOn and R.E.M.: We Can’t Afford to Wait
I actually got attacked on Facebook the other day just for saying I didn’t think people should go bankrupt because they got sick. A doctor – doctor! – told me that nobody died in America because they were poor, and because he did free stuff for some patients, then obviously the ones complaining were just lazy cheapskates. (I defriended him, so please keep that in mind if you plan to post anything similar. I have had a family member in the hospital recently so this is less of an academic discussion for me.)
Rachel
September 9, 2009 — 10:32 am
Well I’m now in floods of tears. If Either of my parents had not had access to public health care in the UK they would both be dead by now. On going treatment for their respective illnesses would have wiped out everything and far far more. My mother would have been uninsurable after having cancer on and off for 20 years.
I know it is a huge undertaking but I think it’s a right.
That’s better. Stopped crying now. Going to wash my face.
Tia aka Vintage Grrl
September 9, 2009 — 11:41 am
I think that even though our health care system isn’t fantastic, the fact that we have a public Medicare system far outwins having to live in the US where that isn’t even an option. Health care is a basic need, and should be available to everyone, not just those that can afford private health insurance.
Sal
September 9, 2009 — 12:06 pm
Thanks for posting Kristy! This was very moving.
SallyO
September 9, 2009 — 12:17 pm
I (along with many others I would imagine) just don’t understand the arguments. Why would anyone not want universal healthcare? I’ve seen people arguing lately along the lines of “Why should people who pay little or no tax get free healthcare?”. “BECAUSE DEAD BODIES LITTERING THE STREETS ISN’T A GOOD LOOK”. One woman asked why people were moaning about the cost – when she had breast cancer and needed surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment and drugs it only costed her $85,000. An English woman pointed out that she had the same treatment recently at a cost of $600 over 5 years (the cost of subsidised drugs). Surely looking after the weak, the elderly, the sick etc is a sign of a civilised society?
jussi
September 9, 2009 — 2:04 pm
absolutely agree – we should be judged by how we treat the weakest members of our community.
brigita
September 10, 2009 — 4:35 am
I saw that conflag on FB, Kris, and had to hold my tongue because it’s been hinted to me that once I get into a discussion on health care and play my cancer card, the discussion comes to a grinding halt.
But you know what? It should. I haven’t been monitoring the national debate that closely to know this for sure, but I would like the right to produce ONE SINGLE, SOLITARY CANCER SURVIVOR (or anyone that has a potentially life-threatening chronic disease) that is anti-public option.
I [apparently] have the Amex Black Card of health insurance, though we certainly didn’t know just how comprehensive it is until I got my diagnosis.
I have clocked dozens of hours in operating rooms and received tens of thousands of dollars worth of chemo, not to mention the four-figure shots that kept me healthy enough to endure chemo (and the radiation, and the CT scans, and the biopsies, and the doctors visits…). What did I pay in total to receive all of this treatment? Five thousand dollars? Five hundred dollars?
NOT ONE RED CENT.
Grinding through cancer treatment is hard enough when you know it’s all paid for (thank JEBUS), I don’t know how people do it when they’re uninsured.
My experience (and others like it) should be the trump cards that shut the mouths of those against public option because *we have been there.*