A Moral Imperative

Since we don’t have home delivery of the New York Times out here on the edge of the world in Chambana, the paper’s website is the first one I click over to when I open my MacBook during my morning coffee.

I was standing at the screen yesterday, trying to avoid emptying the dishwasher, when I opened up this article via my Google homepage headlines. It seems that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing another go at universal health care, which she – rightly so – calls a “moral imperative:”

“But advisers to Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat from New York, said Saturday that she would try to avoid the perception that she was advocating a bureaucratic, big-government solution. That perception, promoted by conservative Republicans and the insurance industry, sank the Clinton plan in 1994.

In her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mrs. Clinton routinely receives applause when she admits having made mistakes as first lady. “I’ve tangled with this issue before, and I’ve got the scars to show for it,” she said recently.

Previewing her speech, Clinton aides said she would assert on Monday that there was a moral imperative to ensure that “every single American has quality affordable health coverage,” just as she contends there is an economic imperative to rein in costs.”

As one of those Americans whose health care could be a potentially disastrous scenario, I agree with her.

My family is covered under a university’s student health-care plan, which costs us hundreds of dollars in out-of-pocket fees.

When The Poo went for her flu shot this past December, it costs us no less than $45. Forty-five smackeroos, for a nurse to poke a needle in the kid’s arm.

That TB test I needed to work at The Poo’s cooperative preschool? The nurse stuck me with a needle, weighed me, and the doc signed a form. Two days later, they looked at my arm. Total cost to me for this service?

It wasn’t covered under our plan at all, so I was out $75. And for the privilege of paying full price for these services, we pay thousands of dollars each semester for a lackluster policy.

I shudder to think what we will have to pay for the colonoscopy I’m due for in April. You know, to make sure I don’t die from colon cancer at an early age, like my dad.

Think about that for a minute. The insurance company would prefer to take the risk that I could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in a few years, rather than shell out 80 percent of the cost to prevent me from having to undergo treatment for a life-threatening disease.

What kind of logic is that?

Oh, wait, I know. That is insurance company logic.

These supposed non-profit agencies whose executives rake in huge corporate salaries.
Makes perfect sense to me.
Or how much will it cost us to have a baby? I need to have a C-section, based on the fibroids in my uterus. Or how much will it cost us to have the tumors removed, if they prevent conception?

I’ll tell you right now that those considerations have an effect on when we have a second child. And that leads to “if” we have a second child, since my husband will be in school for at least two more years. Which will make me 38 by the time we have access to a real insurance plan.

And even those “real” insurance plans are cost-prohibitive these days.

When I worked for a Huge Multinational Corporation, the management there made decisions about health-care coverage that put the financial burden on the workers, while reducing the cost for the company.
They also drastically reduced health benefits to retirees, a group of which my mother is a member. Her costs have risen tremendously.

And surprise, surprise: high-level execs got raises that year, plus bonuses. And the workers? Well, I was offered an insulting 2 percent salary bump.

I don’t usually get up on my soap box here at CAC, but this is an issue that just might motivate me to actually vote.

I am a former journalist and true believer in the peaceful revolution that takes place here in our country every four years.

But these days I am cynical about the workings of our two-party system and the role of money in our democracy, and my instinct is to stay home at polling time.

Because when I pull that lever, I’m not just voting for the candidate. I am voting for the corporate interests behind that person.

And I’ve spent enough of my life feeding The Man.

Now it is time for The Man – or The Woman – to feed me.

So I applaud Clinton’s initiative, and I urge the other candidates to take notice. And I urge you, too.

As the saying goes, so many of us vote with our pocketbooks, with the contents of that pocketbook ranging from money to prejudice to moral beliefs.

My pocketbook is full of concern that if a member of my family is in need of serious health care, it would come at the cost of The Poo’s financial future.

And that is just way to important to ignore.

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I’m talking about The Poo’s favorite new TV show over at The Full Mommy today. Come see what a cow, three moms and preschoolers have to do with early literacy skills!

You can read the comments from this post here.

I’m importing some of my favorite posts from the old Chicken and Cheese, so please forgive me if these post-dated essays show up in your readers.