Yes, the same "public servants", who serve the interests of for-profit health insurers, one of the most hated industries in the United States, are the people who have been entrusted to fix our broken system. Now if this is not the definition of insanity, I don't know what is.
Imagine nurses arrested and now facing trial for standing up for their patients at a Senate hearing. All is not good in the world.
I'd like convey a very simple thought which has been troubling me and I'm sure you, as well. I'll begin by saying that some ridicule me for not being more wonkish. There are enough wonks, I focus on the human tragedy of 47 million without access to healthcare and the rest of us a illness or injury away from financial ruin. I do it the only way I know how, from my heart. And make no mistake, our healthcare system is nothing but a massive human tragedy.
The political class wants you to think providing quality, affordable and guaranteed healthcare to all Americans is a hopelessly unachievable numbers game. A devilish hunt for money. A near impossible dream to do what the rest of the industrialized world accomplished many decades ago.
You want me to tell you a secret? The rest of the industrialized world made healthcare a right, not a privilege as it is in the United States, many long years ago, because they got rid of the parasitic for profit insurers. But not us.
Our broken and depraved healthcare system is not the result of a natural disaster--it is not a hurricane, a flood or an earthquake. Our healthcare system is far worse than a natural disaster because it doesn't have to be like this. Our healthcare system is the result of official indifference. And that indifference remains to this very day. The indifference of June, 2009 is indifference to what is best for the American people.
Those we elect to represent us, have nurses arrested for speaking truth to power. Those we elect to represent our interests simply look the other way.
I have long wondered how they sleep at night, knowing the misery and suffering their indifference is causing. But they do--they have no nightmares, these soulless public servants. And shame on them.
We can't afford to provide all Americans with guaranteed and affordable healthcare? Of course we can't, fully 31% of every healthcare dollar goes to the for-profit insurance industry, and this is just how the politicians who are responsible for this debacle intend for it to remain.
We are all aware of the horrifying statistics, the number of Americans who die each year as a result of not having access to affordable and guaranteed healthcare.
So here's what I want to say, and it's pretty damn simple.
The United States of America remains the only industrialized country without universal guaranteed and afordable healthcare. The suffering that this system has caused virtually every American is unimaginable.
For decades, our elected officials looked the other way as Americans died. It was not a natural disaster which caused these deaths
Now we are on the cusp of long overdue reform. These same officials want to offer us a system in which all the depravity will remain in place.
I'm begging every one of you, to please click this link, it goes to slinkerwink's diary with all the phone numbers of people who must be called, every single day between now and when these bills hit the floor.
Please Senator Kennedy, stand up for the American people. No compromises. NONE.
Call Senator Kennedy on Monday and let him know, we have his back.