Why We Need National Healthcare in America
I never thought I would say this, but a national healthcare system just makes sense.
My first vote for President went to George Bush, Sr.
I entered college via Pell Grants and Financial Aid. They had dissipated by my senior year under the current and previous administrations, which were known for cutting spending for further education among other things.
The working poor were hit hard by these policies. We were financially unable to pay tuition without assistance and loans.
College was a strange experience for me. I felt ill-qualified to be attending a university, as I had attended a poor, rural public school that had an advanced math teacher without a college degree, no band program, nor any decent college prep classes. Our high school superintendent was overheard telling an English teacher not to worry about whether we learned the material, as we were all heading off to the chicken plant after high school. But, I loved college. I eventually obtained my masters degree just to spite him. I never have plucked a chicken, either.
Even while aware that the GOP had cut financial aid, I still voted for Republicans on the ballot.
Some college instructors, but not all, were liberal thinkers and discussions arose in the classroom. Socialism, communism and capitalism were discussion for fodder while taking a foreign policy class on the now collapsed Soviet Union. When discussion of allowing gays to marry arose in a literary class, I pondered before speaking, deciding that it really only made sense to me. Why can two consenting adults not decide how they want to spend their lives?
“Ohhh nooooo,” loudly came the voice of the outspoken redhead behind me. She was a daughter of a well-known obstetrician who attended the big church and seemingly had a better opinion than I did on just about everything. “There are so many ramifications to be considered with gay marriage. What about the insurance?” As I recall, she even stomped her foot a little with this statement.
Oh! I hadn’t thought about that before. Yes. That’s true. If we just marry anybody and everybody to get them on our insurance policies, then that just will be chaotic and we can’t have that. I quietly caved. Dr. Seidensticker deftly maneuvered through the discussion which not only included the outspoken redhead, the quiet brunette, but a whole host of white, young adults from rural America in the classroom that day.
I’m not sure what we decided. But, thirty years later I sure have. To hell with letting insurance companies decide whether gay people can marry.
What kind of country dictates the rights of others based on the profit margins of insurers who are holding the deck of cards to begin with? Screw them. These are the middle guys.
Going through an insurer to pay medical bills is like going to the only business in town, which is government subsidized, that sells hammers when you need to build a house for your family.
Capitalism is fine and dandy, unless there are no competitors and it involves a commodity that is a human right for the citizens of a country.
Should we let corporations own our waterways? Should corporations dictate whether we have clean air? Should corporations determine whether we own our property or not? Should corporations determine how we vote? Should corporations determine whether we live or die?
Today, many Americans have lost their insurance coverage along with their jobs due to COVID-19. The GOP has still yet to overturn the Affordable Care Act, but believe it or not, even in this climate, it is still on their agenda.
The working people built this country, yet we have to fight for even the most basic of healthcare rights. We have voted ourselves into this capitalistic nirvana of believing that if only people worked hard, they too could afford healthcare and housing. But, that simply isn’t true.
People are losing their jobs because they have cancer. They are losing their jobs because companies kept them until they received their Coronavirus Relief Funds based on their number of employees. A conservative figure of lost jobs in the country since mid-March was 20.6 million. Along with those jobs went insurance plans, retirement and the ability for some to even re-enter the workforce due to lingering illness. People over 50 will have difficulty finding jobs because employers prefer fresh-faced, young employees.
Corporations can not be trusted with the funds the government provides to keep us insured. I voted for Republicans because I didn’t question their loyalty to me as a citizen.
I question it now.
We need a national healthcare system in this country for our citizens.
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