We've had a long time: the year and a half of Andrew's last illness, eight years since then, and the last two months, especially, to reflect a bit on matters medical. Both experiences have carried a price tag (and the meter's still ticking on this one) of a quarter of a million dollars plus -- each! So, when I read Nicole's blog today, I knew I wanted to share it with as many folks as possible. Here it is, with her gracious permission:
"Seriously, now.
I'm going, for a minute, to put aside any niceties and updates because I am not doing anyone any favors by not just saying what is on my mind today.
As you all can imagine, this experience with my brother's illness has shocked me out of the apathetic daze I had been in, in regard to the healthcare situation in our country. I am completely serious, when I tell you right now, that if you haven't seen Michael Moore's movie Sicko, you owe it to yourself, your family, and, frankly, your country to see it. I am not personally endorsing or promoting Michael or the film, but what I am doing is asking you all to seriously examine the healthcare situation here. Ask yourself questions. Compare it to the systems they have in place in other countries. Formulate an educated opinion on it, and based on what you've seen in this instance with Andrew, decide to do something more than just accept that our healthcare system is just "the way it is." Hot news flash: The thousands of dollars you are paying in insurance will probably not wind up helping you at all, should you become as ill as Andrew has. It's all about money. Ask someone who has been through it. What will you do then?
Our country's healthcare situation is based on private ownership vs. a socialist system is because of capitalism. It's because of greed for money, in a nutshell, because the rich in America and the Government profit GREATLY from the monetary funding from big drug companies and insurance companies. If the government mandates that these companies are in charge of the way healthcare system is run, those companies make astronomically insane amounts of money and then they, in turn give a bunch of it to the government officials as a "thank you for scratching my back, here's your bonus" type of deal. A socialist system means everyone pays a nominal amount monthly or yearly to the government, and then ALL PEOPLE whether they have jobs, pre-existing ailments, whatever, ALL PEOPLE receive healthcare and they don't walk out with thousands of dollars of bills. All people: Bums. Unemployed. Foreigners. HUMAN BEINGS.
THE REASON OUR COUNTRY HAS THE KIND OF HEALTHCARE "SYSTEM" IT DOES IS BECAUSE WE -- WHICH MEANS ME AND -- YOU -- ARE ACCEPTING IT, ALLOWING IT TO HAPPEN.
Yes, I really did just say that. Why are you not outraged? If you are, help me do something about it. I can assure you, you don't want to go through something like what my family has had to go through TWICE. That is how long it took me to get a grip on the reality of it, and get freaking pissed off enough to actually realize how evil and wrong it is to quantify proper medical care and human life with dollars. If you have already or are currently going through something similar, what more is it going to take to make you understand that the system here is simply humanly WRONG? There is a reason why other countries do it differently. It's called more respect for human life than the dollar, plain and simple. Obama's plan says it's headed in the right direction, but in my opinion, as long as big drug and insurance are allowed to dictate how healthcare is run here, and until ALL citizens can receive decent healthcare at a low cost, there is no improvement, there's just the exchange of life for money. What pisses me off the most is that EXCELLENT government run healthcare systems are successfully being run all over the world, and have been for years and years. When are we going to DEMAND this for ourselves?
http://change.gov/agenda/health_care_agenda/
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/what-can-i-do/
^Go to those websites. Look at them. DO SOMETHING. It is clear that there is power in numbers. Our country has displayed more hope & aspiration for change recently than it has since the 70s. I beg you to approach this subject I am talking about right now with the same fervor that motivated you to vote in the Presidential Election.
xo Nic"
I'm going, for a minute, to put aside any niceties and updates because I am not doing anyone any favors by not just saying what is on my mind today.
As you all can imagine, this experience with my brother's illness has shocked me out of the apathetic daze I had been in, in regard to the healthcare situation in our country. I am completely serious, when I tell you right now, that if you haven't seen Michael Moore's movie Sicko, you owe it to yourself, your family, and, frankly, your country to see it. I am not personally endorsing or promoting Michael or the film, but what I am doing is asking you all to seriously examine the healthcare situation here. Ask yourself questions. Compare it to the systems they have in place in other countries. Formulate an educated opinion on it, and based on what you've seen in this instance with Andrew, decide to do something more than just accept that our healthcare system is just "the way it is." Hot news flash: The thousands of dollars you are paying in insurance will probably not wind up helping you at all, should you become as ill as Andrew has. It's all about money. Ask someone who has been through it. What will you do then?
Our country's healthcare situation is based on private ownership vs. a socialist system is because of capitalism. It's because of greed for money, in a nutshell, because the rich in America and the Government profit GREATLY from the monetary funding from big drug companies and insurance companies. If the government mandates that these companies are in charge of the way healthcare system is run, those companies make astronomically insane amounts of money and then they, in turn give a bunch of it to the government officials as a "thank you for scratching my back, here's your bonus" type of deal. A socialist system means everyone pays a nominal amount monthly or yearly to the government, and then ALL PEOPLE whether they have jobs, pre-existing ailments, whatever, ALL PEOPLE receive healthcare and they don't walk out with thousands of dollars of bills. All people: Bums. Unemployed. Foreigners. HUMAN BEINGS.
THE REASON OUR COUNTRY HAS THE KIND OF HEALTHCARE "SYSTEM" IT DOES IS BECAUSE WE -- WHICH MEANS ME AND -- YOU -- ARE ACCEPTING IT, ALLOWING IT TO HAPPEN.
Yes, I really did just say that. Why are you not outraged? If you are, help me do something about it. I can assure you, you don't want to go through something like what my family has had to go through TWICE. That is how long it took me to get a grip on the reality of it, and get freaking pissed off enough to actually realize how evil and wrong it is to quantify proper medical care and human life with dollars. If you have already or are currently going through something similar, what more is it going to take to make you understand that the system here is simply humanly WRONG? There is a reason why other countries do it differently. It's called more respect for human life than the dollar, plain and simple. Obama's plan says it's headed in the right direction, but in my opinion, as long as big drug and insurance are allowed to dictate how healthcare is run here, and until ALL citizens can receive decent healthcare at a low cost, there is no improvement, there's just the exchange of life for money. What pisses me off the most is that EXCELLENT government run healthcare systems are successfully being run all over the world, and have been for years and years. When are we going to DEMAND this for ourselves?
http://change.gov/agenda/health_care_agenda/
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/what-can-i-do/
^Go to those websites. Look at them. DO SOMETHING. It is clear that there is power in numbers. Our country has displayed more hope & aspiration for change recently than it has since the 70s. I beg you to approach this subject I am talking about right now with the same fervor that motivated you to vote in the Presidential Election.
xo Nic"
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