.:Dreams and Swords:.

Politics: How To Raise My Blood Pressure

***Warning: An Extreme, Explicit Rant***

Today I watched President Obama deliver his speech to the nation about Health Care. I can say I was filled with immense hope and pride watching him up on the podium. My mom was moved to tears as she heard the potential he spoke of for our nation. To me, he cleared up a lot of the things people have been griping about over the past few months. He stated his position in no uncertain terms of what he plans for the Health Care reform. He called not only to reason, but to the morality of the issue, which is there are people who walking a high wire with no net or a net so tattered they might as well protect themselves with wishes and prayers.

What gets to me is the people so freakin' fearful or foolish that they've shut themselves out from hearing anything other than their paranoid propaganda. I walked onto campus this evening hearing the negative aspects of the speech instead of the positive. The school paper's opposition piece drove me up the wall with the word "SOCIALISM" plastered on the paper columns, reminding me eerily of the McCarthy Era. Even some of the things here on WDC...crap, people are so damn ignorant!

The thing that gets to me the most is the fact that people try to push the idea that the system isn't broken. Are you blind or simply not willing to look outside the picturesque sphere in which you live you near perfect life? Millions - not a couple of dudes on the street corner - millions of people are without health insurance. Not because they're young and want the risk or that they're illegal (don't get me started on that bullshit) or that they're too lazy to even to try. Many can't afford to pay out of pocket to get covered or can't because of my favorite phrase in the world "Pre-Existing Conditions".

Here's a story for you:

My mother, a woman who has worked since she was seventeen, can't get health insurance. Why? Because she's been diagnosed with two debilitating, genetic diseases. Now, she's paid her taxes faithfully for decades, paying into a Health Care system that refuses to take care of her as she gets older. No insurance will touch her, even though she's willing to pay the premiums. For decades she's lived in fear of when her diseases might claim her life; not fear of her own death but the money it will cost if she goes into the hospital for treatment and how my brothers and I might have to pay the price.

Now - pretty please - tell me the system isn't broken.

There are those who are worried that any reform will weaken their current coverage. You're covered. The reform will actually save you money because, if more people are able to get health insurance, people like me and my mother will be covered if we're in an accident or have an emergency, reducing your taxes. Yes, that's right, you save tax money! What the reform does for people with insurance already is to make sure they have protection against premiums hikes and small business owners who wish to protect their employees. It also - this made me stand up and cheer - will make it illegal for insurance companies to drop or stop treatment for those are gravely ill because, you guessed it, "Pre-existing Conditions" are discovered in their pasts. You know, things like ear infections or acne. People will stop having to worry about their loved ones dying because a small case of athlete's foot wasn't on their original medical chart.

Some have said this isn't a priority issue. Shit, people are dying, but who cares about that little bit of fluff, right? Every time some one mentions that I think of all the people I've known who've lost their lives to inadequate health insurance and fell through one of the cracks or can't get health insurance. I think of all the people who had the dumb fucking bad luck of horrible genetics and got dropped from their insurance like a rotten potato. Hell, did anyone stand to reason that many of the people under the age of twenty-five don't believe in health insurance because of their experiences and others experiences where the insurance companies did jack shit?

I'd bet all the money in my pockets that people who don't think this is a big deal have ever had to go without the security of health insurance. Have never had the dilemma of whether they should go to see the doctor about the lump on their breast and pay the cost of the "free" clinic or make a car payment for the month or put food on the table for their kids. To make a distinction of whether your life has a high enough monetary value to seek treatment to keep living and bare the high costs.

Never mind that the people without coverage work everyday of their lives to make a living and haven't touched a cent of Welfare or government assistance to help them along. The fact that the plan they thought they had won't pay for the transplant needed to save their spouse's life because of some hidden clause in the system that won't pay for it. They're about to die, but since there isn't anything wrong with Health Care, why don't you sit down with the poor bastards and tell them why they have to die even if there's a cure to save them in the next room. Explain to the parents of the dying daughter or son why the Health Care system is just peachy and should be left alone because their case is only one of about 5 million others going on right now (not including those without insurance which equals roughly 46 million). They're in the minority. They need to stay quiet and suffer in silence as their loved one dies while the majority goes on their merry way.

Then, once more with feeling as another preventable death occurs, tell me there isn't one damn thing wrong with the system. That their loved one isn't worth it.

I inherited medical conditions passed down from generations before me. I didn't do anything to cause them, just got a bad hand when it came to certain parts of my DNA. For these somewhat minor medical conditions I'm out of the running for medical insurance as the system stands now. These conditions could grow into major problems if my mother's diseases are passed on to me, something only time will tell. If Health Care doesn't change, I will get no help down the line, but with this reform I could possibly see a future without the burden my mother and millions of others face today.

So, pretty fucking please, tell me to my face that I and others like me are simply not worth the effort. That we shouldn't have the same right to health insurance as you do.

Last, and certainly not least, whether you voted for him or not, address the man with respect. You may not agree with him. You may even think he's incompetent or ruining the country. Doesn't matter. Call him Mr. President or President Obama with whatever expletive you wish to use. The presidency is not a person - its an office that leads our nation. I couldn't stand President Bush and barely tolerated President Clinton, but I still called them both president when speaking about how much the former was running America into the ground and the latter was a slimy ass wipe who couldn't keep his fly zipped. Why? Because the office of the presidency will be there long after the person elected has left.

Oh, and if you didn't vote at all, shut the fuck up.

Thank you.

***End Rant***