Health In America

Today I turned on Morning Edition on NPR, and they highlighted a story in which the 'tea party' folks plan on putting together a number of demonstrations in view of their local representatives against the recent advances in the health care debate. Now just to be clear before we begin, I should point out that I am in favor of a single payer health care program that would utterly destroy the health insurance industry that exists today. I believe it to be absolutely immoral for someone to profit from someone else's injury, sickness, or misfortune.

Their concern focuses not on the plight of the millions of uninsured Americans, but that their precious dollars may go toward the benefit of someone they see as inferior or undeserving. To a point I can sympathize with their view, if you are not willing to go out and try to make a living, you don't deserve to be rewarded for your laziness. They fail to realize, or admit that the people who would benefit are the working class who on a daily basis wear themselves to the bone and still struggle to get by. The people who have to live paycheck to paycheck and life is still uncertain. There is already a health care program, fully funded by their and my tax dollars that takes care of those who are not working or are considered to be in poverty. Their beef is with people already covered by a government program. To me, this makes no sense to try to punish those who work hard, and reward those who profit from another's injury.

They make arguments that the quality of our doctors will somehow be diminished if tax dollars pay for health care, rather than huge insurance companies and HMO's. Large insurance companies and HMO's that systematically deny patients coverage due to preexisting conditions or try to get out of covering patients because a recent development in their health is expensive to treat. The fundamental problem is that the insurance companies are for profit organizations that are more concerned with their bottom line and showing a higher profit than the year before than they are providing quality care for their customers. A system that is designed to treat illness and injury without concern of profitability would without a doubt be better for those in need of help.

In my opinion, the compromise currently being debated does not go far enough to fix our system here in America. They still leave room for these criminals to rob hardworking Americans by profiting from illness and injury. I am not opposed to a fair market system, or even elements of a free market system, but we're not talking about selling widgets to fulfill a need, we are talking about the health and lives of people... Real people that work hard, that have families, that should not be punished or robbed because they suffer from illness or were injured in an accident. Putting the lives and well-being of hardworking Americans second in line to a corporate profit margin is a morally bankrupt practice far worse than any abortion, rape, or act of violence. It says in no uncertain terms that a product of modern capitalism takes priority over God's most precious creation.

So this month if you see or hear about any of these types of protests or demonstrations, think about exactly what it is these people are advocating. They do make strong arguments, and they in fact have some very valid points. But we are talking about the lives of real people, like you and me and our families being less important than a corporate fat cat's next private jet flight, weekend at the beach house, or golf outing.