May the Bodies of the Uninsured, Smother the tree of Liberty with Gold

Access to affordable healthcare, either through the “government” or through “government free market forces”, is a social responsibility and a civil right.

            After months and months writing on this subject it really comes down to a few simple moral and ethical considerations. Yes, there are monetary issues, and other mechanistic political, government, and corporate mechanisms, groups to blame for inaction and apathy on the subject. Tea Party Groups to blame for their new found fiscal and constitutional patriotism while they stayed silent when Bush was in office, using fear mongering and eliminationist rhetoric to scare old people and intimidate the liberals they hate. What’s driving these people to throw their fellow Americans under the bus so easily?

  Yet, through all this I really never realized the mean spirited greed and selfishness of the anti-Obama anti-government groups. They are more than willing to let American’s who are not able to get affordable health insurance in a supposed “Free Market” die of a pre-existing condition, having their insurance dropped when they need it the most, or have their care denied for some profit making reason. All of these things only benefit those on top of the health insurance corporations in the form of profit for the CEO’s and their stockholders.

Is it in order to satiate their anti-government anti-liberal agenda?  Is this more important than providing a choice to those who are not as well off as they?

    For 12 years the rightwing had congress, and Bush was in office for 8 years, and they took absolutely no actions or responsibility to enact “for profit health insurance market” reforms. They had the power and the control. In fact when they had the chance with Medicare they took away the federal government’s ability to leverage costs with Big Pharma for cheaper drugs and  they gave the control to fix prices to the Drug Corporations and away from government and the people they represent.

    A decision that is and was so anti-competition that it still astounds me to this day!

Republicans, the champions of “free market capitalism” acting as price fixing whore’s for private enterprise. Who do these people represent, the rich and the powerful?

The overall picture is this: Americans who can not afford health insurance on their own or get health insurance from their employer are Second Class citizens! Americans who lose their health insurance when they get fired are Second class citizens! The working poor are second class citizens! Americans who are dropped from their insurance because they get sick are Second Class citizens. Children who do not have insurance, by no fault of their own, other than being born in the situation their parents put them in are Second Class citizens!

More importantly that your life and health issues, “beyond your control” depend solely on your Income and benefits provided by your employer and the good will of Health Insurance Corporations.

We do not live in a “free for all” and “survival of the fittest”, society were the weakest members are left to die and fend for themselves. We do not live in a society that is 100% free from, “Collective”, social responsibility. Yes I said it, just as a corporation is a collective given the same rights as an American; we as the United States of America are a collective as well.

Access to affordable Health Insurance for ALL Americans, in my view is a civil right. I believe it is an American’s social responsibility just as much as we pay taxes for our Military and Mutual defense.

 So far I have been lucky.

   I have a great family support structure, a good job with good benefits and good friends. I’ve worked hard for the things I have and I don’t ask for handouts. I collect my rain water to water my plants. I have my own garden, I buy local from local business and farmers. I’m frugal with my utilities and try to fix and make things myself around the house and reuse things that I can. I take responsibility over my personal health, I try to eat well but admit I need to exercise more. Anything deemed by an Insurance Panel a “Pre-Existing Condition” could wipe away much of what I worked for and Bankrupt me and when I need my Insurance the most it could be dropped, it’s not far, it is Unjust! To pay for a product in our supposed “free Market” by an industry that does not play by the same rules as most corporations.

 I can only imagine how this situation would be for people who have less than I do? Does this make them welfare pigs? Does this make their worth as a human being less than my worth because I supposedly “produce” more? Should Americans below a certain income status be barred from affordable healthcare? Should we live in a society were we enforce second class citizenship on those deemed, “welfare pigs”?

   Affordable access to good healthcare is a civil right and a matter of social justice for the weakest members of our society. Regardless if you think government should be involved or it should remain private, this issue has been festering since the early 1990’s and nothing has been done be it “market reforms”, increase regulations and up until Obama who found the political will to step in, “government intervention”.

 I wish government didn’t have to step in, but it has become clear that the “free market” was unwilling to provide affordable health insurance because it would decrease their profits and this proves their lack of social responsibility because they fixed their markets through politicians’ and are not held at that standard by consumers and American’s alike. Which is unfortunate, I suppose American exceptionalism only applies outside our borders.

 It is a civil right and a social responsibility.