We are all inspired to action by little things here and there every day. Today I was inspired to write an email to a family email list....one that sometimes gets CC'd with conservative spam...and give my 2 cents on the health care battle.
Here is my email to a possibly hostile, but still potentially receptive audience. I should say that I have never before sent a politically sensitive email such as this to my family, but I felt that 'now is the time'.
The take-home message is this:
Please remember that not all action is directed towards strangers.
It comes as no surprise to any of you that I am of the liberal persuasion. I am equally sure, however, that there are a lot of people that are confused about 'the public option'...likely because there aren't really any politicians in DC who aren't under the thumb of the health-care industry or big pharma.
Anyway, if anyone has just 2 minutes and 39 seconds to spare out of their busy day, here is the most simple and eloquent explanation of the public option you are going to get.
For those of you who have already rejected the very idea of a public option as "socialized medicine" (and who are going to refuse to accept Medicare out of principle because it is, unlike the proposed public option, actually "socialized medicine"), you might wish to stop here and just hit the delete button...because I am sure that nothing anyone could say would change your mind. If you are going to accept Medicare but refuse to let others have what you enjoy (because we should pay for your insurance but you shouldn't pay for anyone else), you can probably also hit the delete button too...but I would like to leave you with the words of a wise scholar, from a long time ago:
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"
If any of you actually want to find out why I think that we need a public option, please read on.
I don't send out politically charged emails, and this one really isn't. For me, it's a strictly moral issue. People can say all day long that this is the greatest country on earth, but what does that really mean? For me, all that matters is what I can provide for my children.
Data released in late August by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which tracks developed nations, found that among 30 industrial nations, the U.S. ranks last in life expectancy at birth for men, and 24th for women.
So while my children have more of a chance (and that is to say the same odds as a lottery ticket) to become rich than children of other countries...they will have less time to enjoy it in good health. Is that good enough for your children? Really?
And while some are saying that the government can't do anything right, shouldn't we look at the way the insurance companies are operating right now? Want to see a real death panel?
California's attorney general in particular is currently investigating all of its major insurance companies because of excessive denial rates (news release) like these:
Claims denial rates by leading California insurers, first six months of 2009:
• PacifiCare -- 39.6 percent
• Cigna -- 32.7 percent
• HealthNet -- 30 percent
• Kaiser Permanente -- 28.3 percent
• Blue Cross -- 27.9 percent
• Aetna -- 6.4 percent
These are the same insurers that have paid $18 million in fines in the last 18 months for canceling policies of people AFTER they had catastrophic health conditions (see Washington Post article here). This is what we are up against (what has been called 'murder by spreadsheet'). If you really want to get your blood boiling, the link below is to a video of top insurance executives testifying before congress that they refuse to limit their cancellation of such policies to cases of fraud. (move the slider at the bottom of the video until the time gets to 4:45 to hear what I am talking about).
ed. note: the youtube embed doesn't seem to be working here... this is the clip
They are sitting there defending their option to cancel policies of people who need urgent and expensive medical treatments, possibly to save their lives, because of paperwork errors. And they say that it is business as normal, and will continue to be that way unless we can do something about it.
One last example...while you may not recognize the name Crystal Lee Jordan, you will definitely recognize her fictitious silver-screen character of Norma Rae (for which Sally Field won an Oscar portraying). She died yesterday after a long struggle with meningioma, a struggle that was not helped by her insurance company who denied her claims for two months, preventing her from getting cancer drugs. She was a woman who knew a little something about abuse of working people, and in particular the working poor, and not one to stand by and let it continue. This is what she was reported as saying about her fight with the insurance company. This is from an article last year (link):
She went two months without possible life-saving medications because her insurance wouldn't cover it, another example of abusing the working poor, she said.
'How in the world can it take so long to find out (whether they would cover the medicine or not) when it could be a matter of life or death,' she said. 'It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.'
But if you want to continue to trust that your insurance company, that is entirely your choice. I would just like to have the opportunity to have mine as well.