HEALTH CARE

I was much distressed, last night, by the 60 Minutes report, "On the Road With the Health Wagon." Not that I had been previously unaware, conceptually, of some states' rejection of federal money for health care in the form of the Medicaid extension offered by the Affordable Care Act.  The hatred of Obama and his policies is apparently so great that Republican Governors and Republican state governments would rather see their constituents die than join in the effort to provide them with health care.  The 60 Minutes report brought home that this was a literal--and by no means exaggerated--truth.

If you missed it, try that link.  You can't fail but be awed by the spirit of the two young women who have chosen to dedicate their lives to bringing some minimal level of health care to those most in need in the poverty-stricken hills of Appalachia.  This is America?  Where our fellow human beings are allowed to suffer from disease and neglect, some of them to die unnecessarily at an early age, simply because politicians are too proud, too angry, too ideologically blinded to accept help on their behalf from a source that they, the politicians, despise?  Where the costs of health care are compounded by the absence of simple, inexpensive preventative action?  Where patients arrive, already "train wrecks", in the words of one of the two extraordinary women who drive the "health wagon" to even the most remote of areas and bring not only medical attention but also a good measure of concern and love.

There are those, I know, who will tout the Health Wagon as a fine example of the power of the "public sector."  They should think again.  Funded only to one-third of its costs by grants from public sources, the organization barely scrapes together what it needs to function on a shoestring.  The "wagon" itself is  a wreck--although the report indicated that enough money has been raised to purchase a new one.  There are many people, many areas, surely, that still go unattended or underserved.  Basic health care should not be a charity in a country where the wealthy flourish and build unseemly fortunes; it should be, as it is in every other advanced nation, a simple right.

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Bad Faith

I see only one or two possible conclusions after yesterday's Senate committee vote on health care: that Republicans are simply choosing not to think beyond purely ideological lines, to put party allegiance and self-interest ahead of this country's self-evident needs, and to ignore the voice of the majority of people in favor of the more profitable voice of the insurance companies. Or that they are so vengeful, and so concerned with their return to power that they are willing to do anything to obstruct even the least liberal of efforts by the Democrats--and particularly this democratic President.

Why else would it be impossible to gather more than a single, very reluctant vote for this pitifully watered-down version of health care reform?

If those Senators and those Republicans were actually giving serious thought to the moral and economic implications of their lockstep opposition, there would surely be some tiny glimmer of dissent among their ranks. Nothing. There is no serious debate, no engagement of ideas, no compromise from that side of the aisle. And yet the Democrats have offered compromise after compromise. I'm sorry, friends, this is cannot be considered a matter of honest disagreement. This is bad faith, pure and simple. Bad faith on the part of the insurance companies. Bad faith on the part of those whom they have apparently bought off with their money and their influence.

It's a disgrace, and one that leaves the rest of the world aghast at the inability of this "beacon of democracy" to achieve what every other affluent country achieved years ago. Despite all our wealth and privilege, we are apparently still unwilling to make the moral and financial commitment to provide for the health of our own citizens. We are, however, willing to make it possible for those with power and influence to increase their wealth and power at the cost of the suffering of those who lack them. As I say, it's a disgrace.

I understand that the legislative process still allows for modifications to the proposal that received a bare nod of approval yesterday. I would like to believe that they will lean in the direction of access and affordability for all Americans. But, given the deplorable political comedy that has characterized things thus far, I don't hold out much hope.