It's safer dodging bullets and IED's on the streets of Iraq than trusting America's broken health care system to take care of your family. Meet Staff Sgt. Matthew Kruger, via a recent article in the
Los Angeles Times:
For Kruger, who returned to a war zone for his third tour in December, the danger of losing his family's health insurance was more real and immediate than the danger of dying in combat.
Kruger's not alone in his decision to reluctantly re-enlist; the article details several parents, including a single mom, who are re-upping because they believe their families are more in danger from an increasingly failing American health care system than from their own possible demise.
For many service members, it's a matter of balancing risk: Within the military, multiple deployments are commonplace, and more than 2,400 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and 18,000 have been wounded. Outside the military, 46 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance, and those who do pay increasingly higher prices for it.
At what point can the question be raised: Is a country worth dying for that cannot ensure that a child's heart condition will be treated? This risking of parental death raises another troubling aspect, an undercurrent that runs through the whole article, that a parent's worth is more important as material provider than as an active and daily presence in family life. And it's not simply a health care gap that leads the brave to sign up for more tours; the lack of job opportunities in general is forcing the risk-taking as well. Air Force Staff Sgt. Alex Myers surveys the civilian landscape and like many others, reaches a logical conclusion:
...In the Air Force, he is a rising star with a job he is proud of. Out of it, he is just another guy with a high school diploma.
Myers' wife is understandably concerned:
"I don't want to raise our kids on my own. I saw my mom do it. It's not an easy life," Krissy said in the cheery living room of her home in Spanaway, Wash., near Ft. Lewis, a changing table in the corner awaiting the baby who would soon arrive. "It breaks the kids' hearts. It breaks everyone's heart."
But Myers has decided to reenlist in November for four more years. A $40,000 bonus cinched the deal. "It all came down to financial stability," he said. He is scheduled to return to Iraq in January for his fourth tour.
A March Gallup poll indicates that the concerns of these military families are the same as those of civilians, according to Editor and Publisher:
A new Gallup Poll released Tuesday reveals that the issue cited by most Americans as the one they worry about the most is "the availability and affordability of healthcare."
A total of 68% said they worried about this a "great deal." Coming in second is the social security system at 51%. Following close behind that were "availability and affordability of energy," drug use, crime and violence--and only then "the possibility of terrorist attacks in the U.S." (at 45%).
And a recent survey by Money magazine produced this eye-opening result:
What scares parents most when it comes to the safety of their family? Terrorism? No. Crime? Negative. Violent video games? The environment? Not even close.
A recent survey asked 300 parents of school-age children to rank a list of fears in order of which inspired the most horror. Ahead of all the above, believe it or not, was the high cost of college tuition.
When we've created a society in which people are more fearful of college tuition costs, lousy job opportunities and lack of health care than being blown to bits in a war zone, we have to ask ourselves what are we asking our troops to fight for in the end? Traditionally, warriors have gone off to battle ostensibly to preserve a nation's way of life at home. What happens when that way of life becomes so gutted by a culture of individualistic greed and self-preservation that communitarian cooperation and goals no longer exist?
Again, I ask: What are we asking our soldiers to fight for?