While this entire healthcare debacle continues on, there is one thing Alan Grayson said that struck me, and it is something that I think we all should do. And it's this: start showing the faces and share the stories of the people who die in this country because of a lack of insurance.
This report that Alan Grayson sites says all we should need to know: that 44,000 people die every year due to a lack of insurance. If we start showing people the faces of those who die, if we start telling their stories, then maybe, just maybe people might listen. But let us not stop there, lets open their funerals open to the public, start recording every one, so that people will get a sense of just how big of an issue this is. Heck, why not just have one memorial service a day, where we can read off names and hold up pictures?
You think I'm joking, but not until we start showing people the toll this is taking will we be moved to action.
44,000 a year, 3,666 a month, 121 a day. Do you think this would be acceptable if people actually saw their deaths? That's a 9/11 happening every month, every year, for quite a few years now. People are moved when they see pictures like this:
If 120 were dying from airline crashes a day in the country, how long do you think it would take before there was action to reduce that number? A month? 2 weeks? 5 days? Yes, I know a plane crash does not equal dying due to lack of insurance, but they both result in the same thing: death.
However, those who die due to lack of insurance do not have a plane crash to show how they died. Instead, they are left to suffer in agony and die. No pictures of their last moments.
So, start sharing stories about the dead, start showing their faces, their families. Show them to members of Congress, to the media, to anyone that is willing to listen. Maybe, just maybe, we can start getting through about why healthcare reform is a necessity.