If it walks like a duck...
Timothy McVeigh 168 Victims
Gary Ridgeway 48 victims
Belle Gunness 40 Victims
Ted Bundy 35 Victims
9-11 Terrorists 2,819 Victims
Boston Strangler 13 Victims
American Health System 22,000-44,000 Victims annually
This comparison is not intended to be inflammatory. It is simply a reminder of the death and loss created when individuals knowingly, willingly, and without remorse ignore the humanity and value of their neighbors. I do not believe that everyone who opposes reform is sociopathic or a serial killer. But our lack of engaged and pointed debate has prevented us from separating what can only be called the sociopathic beliefs of those who have no remorse for the death and havoc in our system from those who simply haven't been pushed to go beyond the rhetoric of fear. We have let the screaming voices hide for too long behind the ideological catch phrases, the anonymity of the victims, and the arms length--yet easily traced--connection between decision makers and the thousand of deaths we understand are directly attributable to their decisions. The tragedy is that we have not insisted that those who oppose reform sit down and tell ordinary people if they think this culture of death is acceptable, and if not, what they propose to do to address it. This debate will be won if we insist on the simple pragmatic and ethical questions.
I have repeatedly discovered that the debate changes when I start with questions. Ideological catch phrases fade in their appeal when individuals are pressed on pragmatic issues like:
Should an accident or heart attack victim who will never be able
to afford the cost of the care they need be sent away from the
Emergency Room? If not, who should pay?
Should an individual who was born with diabetes be denied coverage
unless they work for a large corporation with a full health plan?
Should a family with a child with a high fever and other
serious symptoms wait until the child is delirious before taking them
to the emergency room--the only place they can get treated without
first providing proof they can pay?
Should an individual with tuberculosis simply go about their life
untreated because they cannot afford the needed medications?
The simple truth is that very few people are so callous that they do not want their neighbors and family to have access to life-saving medical attention and they understand that if that's true it must be paid for somehow. We have allowed speculation about imagined deaths that might happen if we ensure that every American is protected by access to health insurance to distract us from this shared value (and as T.R. Reid has observed in his book Healing America, this is always the first step toward universal coverage).