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First off, I do not know much about the intricacies of the health care debate. What's more, I do not know all that much about my own insurance coverage. That doesn't necessarily mean you should stop reading, but I'm only trying to be honest with you.But even with this paucity of knowledge about the nuts and bolts of the issue - like Michael Steele, I don't do policy - I know there is something critically wrong with a system that allows for 47 million people in this country to go uninsured.
Also, I know that if I were to really get sick, I would be shit out of luck. I'd plunge into the financial abyss. But I would have plenty of company.
Anyway, I have a pair of friendly but very long-winded neighbors who live on the first floor of the building in my apartment complex. They are in their late 50s: the woman is dying from a brain tumor and other related illnesses and her husband walks with help of a cane, is missing about a third of his teeth and thinks "something is wrong with me, but I probably won't know what it is until they wheel me into the emergency room." He tells me that it would cost as much as $85,000 for him to get insurance coverage. It should go without saying that he's uninsured.
They are friendly, resilient people. And they - regular Fox News viewers - are fiercely against any plan from Obama to expand access to health care.
Last night, the man tried to force me into a conversation about Obama's news conference. And against my better judgment, I halfheartedly engaged in a debate with him.
Mostly, I let him rant. And I posed a series of questions: "But don't you think anything is better than the system we have now?" "Do you really prefer insurance company bureaucrats interested in profits to government bureaucrats interested in better health outcomes?" "Don't you think you'd have a better chance of getting care under a public option?" "Are you really OK with a system that allows 47 million people to go uninsured?"
He was unmoved. And then he started off on a diatribe about Obama appointing a "science czar" who believes in "Eugenics." It was about that point that I mentally checked out of the conversation.
But what gives?
More than ever, I'm concerned - especially after Sen. Harry Reid's brilliant stroke of leadership yesterday - that any Obama plan for healthcare reform is going to meet successful resistance. And my neighbor, in some ways, is the clearest indication of this concern.
Despite all the available evidence, all the terrible stories, financial struggles that have nearly ruined him and even his own failing health, my neighbor is convinced that Obama and the Congressional Democrats are trying to run a fast one on the rest of us.
What's wrong with him? And where does the conversation go from here? I wonder if I'm missing out on a teachable moment, even though the discussion is already far above my small little brain.
UPDATE: Fixt typo in 7th graf. (Thanks, Maria)
10 comments:
I have no clue.
I touched on this this morning on my blog. I have no idea what some people are thinking.
The current system is broken and it needs to be fixed. Obama needs to get these guys in check and on board.
The Republicans simply will not get this done. They were against medicare for crying out loud.
I've tried not to peg things down to simple racism and bias. I want to believe its more than that, but I hear stories like the one you wrote about all the time. I honestly can't understand it.
well, there's a few things wrong with your neighbor.
if he watches fox news, that's your main problem. the health reform debate has been swiftboated into something political and a project to be defeated by the GOP.
secondly, he's completely unself-aware if he can't see that this idea would benefit him.
did you mean "under" a public option instead of "until?"
most thinking folks do support changes but they're worried about costs, which haven't been sufficiently addressed.
why do you think you'd be bankrupt if you got "really sick?" that's a scary thought coming from a young, single, childless man with a good job!
@Esquire: See, I was hoping not to go there. But it never strays too far from my thoughts.
@Maria: Thanks for pointing out the typo.
And I'm not so worried about the costs, long-term. I'm more concerned about the long-term implications of continuing with a broken system. In the U.S., we spend more and get less from our health care system than almost any other developed country. We have higher infant mortality rates and a lower average lifespan than almost any other first world country. I think the costs to our nation, in that way, are much higher. While I do want to see more about how healthcare reform might look here, I'm not going to be concern-trolling the numbers.
Also, as President Obama said, the cost of doing nothing will likely be higher.
And I have no doubt that I'd go bankrupt if I got really sick. I'm underinsured, like most people. I simply can't afford top-flight coverage.
And were I to get cancer - prostate cancer touched my father and at least two uncles relatively early in their lives - or fall seriously ill, I'd be fucked. I'm in my 30s, I'm a black man - just off the top, I'm expected to live about 8 fewer years than your average white guy - and my family has a history of high blood pressure and diabetes. I can't play young and stupid forever, you know?
I have to face these facts. Bad things happen to good people. And they could happen to me, too.
Also, my job is aight. But it ain't that good. ;)
So I've had a cold and what I think is a sinus infection for the last two weeks. I didn't go to the doctor out of sheer laziness. I finally went today (after getting tired of my drippy nose and the mouthbreathing). Saw the doctor, got a prescription for amoxicillin, and was sent on my way. I paid $5 total.
Nothing could have been easier. And I hate the fact that everyone can't do the same thing.
ok, let's deconstruct this; cuz i think you are over-thinking it and causing youself undue anxiety.
you said--
"And I have no doubt that I'd go bankrupt if I got really sick. I'm underinsured, like most people. I simply can't afford top-flight coverage.
ok, so what does this mean? your deductible can't be that high. i assume you have maybe a lifetime benefit dollar limit, but sometimes that's upwards of a $1 million.if you stay in network you should be ok, right?
"And were I to get cancer - prostate cancer touched my father and at least two uncles relatively early in their lives - or fall seriously ill, I'd be fucked. I'm in my 30s, I'm a black man - just off the top, I'm expected to live about 8 fewer years than your average white guy - and my family has a history of high blood pressure and diabetes. I can't play young and stupid forever, you know?"
ok, so heredity explains like 15% of all cancers. and the rest is just random, unexplainable shit AND/OR lifestyle factors in your control. i think you can't be held hostage by your background. what you think might happen.
diabetes and high blood pressure are not only controllable, they are often preventable.
"I have to face these facts. Bad things happen to good people. And they could happen to me, too."
this is just fatalism....
"...and the rest is just random, unexplainable shit AND/OR lifestyle factors in your control. i think you can't be held hostage by your background. what you think might happen."
But see ... that's exactly the point. There's so much shit about our lives that we can not control. Whether or not I eat right and/or work out and/or get lucky. I'm young - now. I'm healthy - now. All of those things can and will change. Like they do for everyone else.
I'm not living my life in fear or anxiety. I'm living with the knowledge of what I know can and does happen to people - I'm assuming you read the link about health-related bankruptcies.
I should also probably mention that I wouldn't go bankrupt if something happened, at least until I ran out of sick leave and stopped getting a paycheck.
Then eventually I would be fired and I would be left without an income or insurance. And that's when I would go bankrupt. But if I could get back to work in relatively short order (I'm sure they would give me at least a month after your leave ran out), I would probably be ok.
And, carrying out this point a tad further, if I'm blessed enough to make it to 65 (the average length of life for a black male in the U.S. is about 69), it's at that point that I would be at the highest risk of anyone for prostate cancer. I just hope that I have insurance when the time comes.
Also, I didn't say "when" I got ill. I said "if" or "were." I qualified those statements; I'm not planning on dying anytime soon.
But I don't think it's fatalistic to admit that something bad could happen to you. If we didn't assume that there was a risk, few of us would bother with insurance coverage.
And because I demand truthiness from the people around me, I had to ask the First Lady about her thoughts and she said: "You might be being somewhat pessimistic as far as your health risks (though those are very real)."
Then again, she's the one - along with my mom - who have been insistent that I start regular checks for prostate cancer in my mid-30s. A doctor once made the same suggestion.
Ugh. Those are not fun visits. I'm not a big fan of the jelly finger.
if your real worry is what happens when you're 65 and/or disabled and need medicare, you need to focus more on that aspect of the reform proposals, because medicare is almost out of money.
cuz the rest is just about growing old. and i also realize that as a virtual only child with no kids yourself (yet) you also don't have family that you could conceivably rely on (not that any of us want to be a burden to our family, but the truthiness of it is that --that's how families function. at least italian ones!).
I've been trying to think on this issue as well, and I try to discuss this topic on my blog. I would greatly appreciate your input.
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