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I’ve pretty much sat on the sidelines watching the national health care debate among my fellow Americans and shaken my head. So sad, I’ve thought to myself, so very sad. So many misinformed people — who want, it seems, to stay misinformed.
I won’t go into the specifics of health care reform as proposed by the Obama administration. The White House does a pretty good job of explaining the details itself. They’re at the government site for anyone to read. What I will tell you are my experiences.
In 1999, while living in Munich, I noticed a tumor in my right breast. I actually noticed it in May, but didn’t do anything about it until September. I told myself it was a cyst. I decided that I would have a doctor look at it in June or July, when I planned to visit New York. However, the doctor in New York promptly told me that if I suspected I had a tumor — and had my insurance in Europe — then that’s where I should seek treatment. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear (I was terribly homesick, by then), but it was common sense, and in retrospect, the best advice I could have received.
It turns out I did have cancer. Stage II, malignancy. That October, I ended up having surgery. That fall and winter, I underwent a regimen of strong chemotherapy. That spring, I was sent on a cure to recover and rebuild my strength. The next summer, I had radiation treatments.
I received the surgery and chemo at a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous private clinic, with lovely gardens, and top-notch doctors. The cure was taken at an exquisite lakeside facility. I had the attention of a chief doctor and a team of bright young things, razor sharp (and so physically beautiful you’d think they’d been sent up by Central Casting).
How much did all this treatment cost me? $0. That’s right. I never paid a dime.
And why? Well, I owe my thanks to the assertive doctors at the clinic who put me in a trial. But mainly I owe a debt of gratitude to Germany’s socialized health care system. Without it, I couldn’t have afforded the surgery, the chemo, the spa (which came with its own team of doctors and therapists), and the radiation. Nor could I have paid for the five years of monitoring that followed — the visits to cardiologists, radiation specialists, oncologists, and so on.
Quite honestly, I don’t understand the folks who oppose health care reform here. These are the same people who are terrified of losing their health insurance, the very same insurance that’s raising its rates and yet often refusing them treatment. I don’t understand why anyone would turn down an alternative that could literally save their lives or the lives of those they love.
These folks say they’re worried about health care reform costing them money. The current system already does. They have no idea how much — how many thousands — they could save every year if we had a better health care system.
People go on and on about non-existent “death panels” under the Obama plan. The fact is, we have people making those life-and-death decisions right now. Every day, HMOs cold-bloodedly disapprove a treatment that could substantially improve the quality of life or even save the life of a loved one. Yet no one is standing up and accusing them of having death panels.
People are railing about health care being rationed under the Obama plan. Surprise, surprise. It already is. Every day insurances refuse to pay for treatments, despite the efforts and pleadings by our doctors to convince them otherwise? These decisions are a form of rationing. They’re based not on concern for the lives of Americans but on concern for company profit. This happens every day. Yet no one is standing up and railing about the rationing that is occurring under the present system. We accept it. We don’t think about it, because for many of us, that’s always been the way it is.
People are railing about socialism, saying that President Obama has sent us down the road to turning into the former USSR, as though socialism were the same as communism. Well, tell that to our strongest democratic allies — Britain, France, and Germany, all incredibly strong democracies, all of which have socialized medicine. Having grown up with it, the citizens of those countries consider government-run insurance and affordable health care an inalienable right — as much as the right to free speech. They are watching our “debate” with open-mouthed dismay.
We Americans like to think of ourselves as open-minded, knowledgeable, innovative, and compassionate. Yet, so many of us are are demonstrating incredibly narrow-mindedness, ignorance, resistance to change and utter selfishness. Must we act like adolescents who have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into a life that would mean improvement for the entire family? We’ve had people who claim the Constitutional right to bear arms, yet yell down their own elected representatives, in fact refuse them the equally Constitutionally-guaranteed right to free speech. We’ve had protesters crying on television that they want “their America back.” Since when is it a question of “their” America? The nation belongs to all of its citizens, equally, or at least that’s the theory for a democracy.
What does socialized health care have to do with books? In my case, it’s simply this: If I hadn’t had it, then there’s a good chance, a strong chance, that I wouldn’t be here to write them.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Persia – The Obama folks should send YOU out to the town meetings and leave him (and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle) at home. Really!! I’d suggest you submit what you’ve written as an op-ed piece, but I’m certain nobody who’s been ranting against health care reform has ever read a newspaper.
You are so right. I’m tired of the hypocrites. The very people who
have no problem with Medicare or Social Security, seem to think that
a national health plan for everyone else is a horse of a different
color. I do think the administration has, up to now, made two
errors in rolling this out: 1)The health plan
appeared too complicated. This made it too easy for the opposition
to cherry-pick “problems” and blow them up (i.e., death panels).
The admin must simplify, boil it down into something that most people
can understand. 2)The admin should have made a bigger appeal to the
middle class. Sad to say, too many don’t care about people without
money. I think the playbook that Obama used in his campaign was
a good one. He needs to revisit it.
You couldn’t be more right. HMO’s are ruthless. And one of the biggest reasons for the huge expense of healthcare in this country is an entire industry of middlemen who wouldn’t exist with socialized medicine. Even PPOs and other higher-quality insurers base their success on how FEW claims they approve, whereas doctors in other countries get their bonuses based on how *healthy* their patients are. Imagine that, a doctor who will earn more if you are healthier? Isn’t that the kind of doctor you want to have? And in other countries, those docs are driving Mercedes and living very well. So why can’t the USA, the alleged superpower of the world, accomplish what most of our Western world counterparts have?
I do wish Obama would take a harder stand against those who obviously care little about the health of their countrymen and more about protecting their own self-interests. I’m also stunned that his administration did not see that opponents would, as you say, cherry-pick “problems” and contort them. The bitterness and resentment among those who lost power when his administration took over should never have been underestimated.
However, I’m more appalled by the attitude taken by the average person. When it comes to health care in this country, people seem to accept the hand they’re dealt. They either cannot or will not believe that there’s a better system out there. So many choose to believe lies rather than think for themselves. That saddens me enormously.