Why Is Health Care A Political Debate And Not A Birth Right?!
Kairol Rosenthal, author of “Everything Changes”, wrote a stunning letter on Dear Thyroid today called “My Thyroid, My Congressman“. In her letter, she shared her story about losing her insurance shortly after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, among other things. She also posted a wonderful article on her blog called: “When is ‘Life Or Death’ Not a Cliche?!”
At the end of each post, Kairol requested us to “Put down your iPhone apps, your facebooking, your twittering, your blogging, and pick up the phone and call, call, call your congress person. Use this link to find the phone number of your representative and politely reiterate to them how important healthcare reform is and they should vote yes. I know our country can do better than where we are right now. I’m counting on you.”
Dear Thyroid is a thyroid literary support community, essentially a health community. We come together in the name of thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers, not religion or politics. Earlier in the week, I wrote a post called “This Isn’t About Politics. This Is About Basic Human Rights, Health Care Reform“.
Today, when emailing with Kairol, I requested a post from her about health care reform from the patient perspective. I saw it as another opportunity for the community to come together and talk about health care reform, and what reform means to each person. In my opinion, health care isn’t, and shouldn’t be a political discussion; it is a basic human rights and health care discussion.
If I were born in Canada or the UK, or several other countries, I would’ve been born into health care, regardless of my parents financial circumstances. In this country, the very notion of health care reform has become a seemingly insurmountable issue. Why?! Insurance companies are fighting this with everything they’ve got and providing misinformation to consumers. Why?! They’re going bankrupt; they’re losing billions of dollars. Doctors and hospitals aren’t getting paid. Consumers can’t afford to pay their insurance premiums and, or out-of-pocket expenses. FYI – There is no tax relief for medical expenses.
In this country, insurance, health, my heath, has become a business. Health care has failed me and millions of other people. Quality care is a thing of the past. Doctors have quotas (let’s sit with that for a minute, quotas), and a lot less time to treat patients, much less diagnose them properly. But, that’s another post for another day.
Circling back to where I started; politics aside, we need health care reform. People are dying and losing their homes, forced into bankruptcy. I believed with all of my heart that this was an issue worth discussing. I don’t regret tabling it. Though, I am sorry a political discussion erupted and caused a few hiccups.
That being said… Health care shouldn’t be a privilege. Are you with me? Are we same paging? Do you feel me?
Done
Hi. First time visiting your site, I think. So forgive me for commenting on an ‘older’ post. But I just have to chime in on this.
It is astonishing and frustrating that opponents to h-c reform aren’t being called on the fact they let the system get to where it is now (pre-reform). Every time one of those Republican or Blue Dog mofos complains, they should be reminded that they did nothing – nothing – on the h-c file for decades while tens of millions of Americans went without, and countless of their fellow citizens died for lack of care.
Opposition to universal health care isn’t just a political position. It’s a character defect.