Last night I was so delighted by the animation diaried by tunesmith breaking the health care reform issue down to stick figure simplicity that I immediately posted it to my blog with the simple statement preceding:
"I’d like to see every right wing nutjob rebut this video:"
Within an hour I had my wish.
Not really a nutjob, but a dear friend I’ve known for nearly four decades gave me a phone call. We’ve drifted apart in some ways, geographically and philosophically, as he’s become deeply religious while I’ve become a spirited atheist and my liberalism contrasts strongly with his conservatism. Still, we have much in common and I have deep respect and fondness for him. He had to call me immediately upon seeing the post because he thought he had a real zinger for me.
"I just wanted to let you know that I have fire insurance, and so do you!"
I could tell he was kind of spoiling for an argument about this, but I really wasn’t in the mood. Truth be told, I hadn’t heard from him in a while, and wanted to touch base on friendlier grounds. I chuckled admission that he may have a point and swiftly changed the subject to things I knew we had general agreement on; movies, science-fiction, family stuff.
A bit later in the conversation he told me about his recent colonoscopy, which he’d found to be a fairly unpleasant experience as it is with most folks I imagine. I surprised him by telling him I’d had one a couple of years earlier upon turning fifty and remembered it to be on balance a pleasant overall experience. We agreed the evacuation ritual the night before, with its atrocious tasting concoction, was not fun, but I had enjoyed the aftermath of the experience in particular, and not solely for the delightfully stoned experience of the anesthetic medication. I’d been thrilled to find out I didn’t have cancer.
He was surprised I’d had the procedure done so promptly – knowing me to be a chronic procrastinator I suppose. I told him it had a lot to do with my older brother’s recent case, where the doctor found several pre-cancerous polyps and told him he might have been facing a death sentence if he’d put it off much longer. For several months I had dwelled upon this news with a case of severe Woody Allen-like anxiety, certain that I would hear the worst when I had my turn. This spurred me to get it done fairly promptly, and when it was over I was pretty well blessed out at the knowledge I wasn’t facing imminent extinction. After a little more chit-chat we said goodbye. His last comment showed he was still aware of why he’d called me though as he suggested I "do something about that horrendous blog post." I told him I might have to add a few words, or something to that affect.
Afterwards I thought back to that fire insurance thing. It struck me that the analogy was poorly considered and really not necessary- they’d already done a great job of illustrating the nature of the problem and the all too obvious solution. But it led me to another thought. Why is it such a bad analogy? Could there have been another insurance analogy they could have chosen? Not really, because most forms of insurance are about protecting property value. House, cars, etc., come in a wide range of values, from essentially worthless to worth a fortune. It makes sense in these cases that companies should compete to offer the best policies to protect what is valued to whatever degree. Human health, however, is a different story. Our consensus moral code as elucidated in our constitution is that all human beings are created equal, so it follows that they are of equal value- regardless of their perceived worth to human society. A system of profit-driven insurance seems to imply the question "how much is a particular life worth?" How much are you willing to pay to protect yours? Seen in this light, profit-driven health insurance seems deeply un-American to its core. A little "socialism" is a small price to pay to advance core American values, isn’t it?
Now I can't help thinking about the colonoscopy thing in yet another light. What if I, like 47 million Americans, had not had insurance? The dread I'd felt for those few months could have lasted for years, and the financially driven procrastination could have eventually proven lethal. How many Americans are we consigning to this unnecessary hell with this immoral policy?