Dad Tells It on the Mountain
Dad has been politely nagging me to put this piece “Death Becomes Us” up on The Nervous Breakdown practically before I was a contributor there. In fact, I seem to recall that he also wanted me to send it to newspapers and congressmen when I first wrote it. I sent a few letters to Congress, but left it at that.
After the Medical Pow-Wow this past week, Dad told me to put it up there again. So I did. And the comments were excited, eager, enthusiastically supportive, which is of course gratifying.
But no comment was as fired-up as Dad’s, which deserves to stand on its own. Here it is, edited only for paragraph breaks.
Note from Dad:
Since the end of May, the upfront costs of my medical problems, including trips to the ER, labs, biopsies, catscans, ultrasounds, bone scans, etc., run to something more than 20 grand. (I’ll know the total when I get my IRS forms together.) My Lupron injections, plus lab costs and followup with my oncologist cost around $4000. That’s for one shot in the keister. Simpler and much less expensive than other possible treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, this shot allows me to function almost like a normal person, get around on my own, not need a personal attendant, interact with other members of society, pay regular visits to my studio, and spend quality time with my family. I get these injections every 3 months–for those of you who are as bad at addition and multiplication as I am this is about $16,000 a year. (Added up this all comes close to equaling most of my annual income.)
I have an appointment coming up with my opthamologist who is going to tell me that I need cataract surgery. This, like the injections, will hopefully be mostly covered by Medicare. This is, of course, a government run health program, for which I paid out thousands of dollars in taxes during my working life, and which is now saving me from bankruptcy and a severely shortened and highly painful existence. The Medicare fund, along with Social Security, is also, as some of you might know, the piggy bank which our government has been robbing for years through some very inventive book-keeping in order to conceal their increasingly out-of-control budgetary exuberance. (Did someone mention “earmarks?”)
Personally I do not begrudge the fact that much of the taxes I paid into these programs went to save the asses of other people who, perhaps, were unable to survive without this assistance. As a member of a community, presumably one represented by the government which administers these programs, it seems the right thing to do. Likewise, unlike the “no-tax” fanatics, I willingly pay for schools, police and fire departments, food stamps, and other human services–provided by the government–as part of a good citizen’s responsibility.
It pisses me off to hear the bleating complaints of those who think a responsible government works best when it ignores as much as possible the well-being of its citizens, only so that those with much can avoid sharing a bit of it with those who have little or nothing. I don’t believe in the death penalty either–and the escalating costs, the convoluted and self-serving procedures of the health care complex, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical service providers, amount, for many unfortunates, to a death sentence without charges or trial. Talk about rationing! The health care complex as a whole is a “death panel”.
May each of you get the health care you want–it’s no more nor less than you deserve.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Dear Q, Thanks for disseminating my rant to all the loyal followers of the vaguely menacing bunny. I did feel the need to get some stuff off my chest after I read through the comments on your piece via The Nervous Breakdown. It seemed to me that much of it was just ill-considered, badly parsed and totally unsupported knee-jerk opinion–nothing I would have been able to give a passing grade to as an essay exam or term paper topic, back in the day when such things still mattered to me. I’m not sure if these perceived deficiencies in reasoning are properly ascribed to the authors, or more appropriately blamed on the abysmal state of education, at every level, in the USA. I’m surprised that no one has publicly stated something that seems apparent to me, namely that it is in the interest of our power-grubbing political entities to ensure that, unlike the Jeffersonian model of an educated citizenry able to make soundly reasoned judgments on their own, the goal is to keep the electorate as ignorant and stupid as possible so they can be more easily hoodwinked. This is the true intent of NCLB (No Child Left Behind), to make sure that every child remains as dumb as every other child. Or is this just my inner curmudgeon rising gasping and sputtering to the surface? Love, Dad
Curmudgeon! You old crank! No, I think the state of education is part and parcel of the medical debate; education for the wealthy and everyone else can fend for themselves. Medical coverage for the wealthy, and everyone else can just eat it.
When did we lose the ear of our government? Why are we just shouting into the void? Everyone knows it’s a shambles but no-one seems to be willing to take a chance on something new. It’s all duct-tape and baling wire as usual, until the whole contraption will fall apart in a huge explosion and we are all pulled down with it.
Well, Charles, I can only sputter alongside you. If it were not for my government-run and excellent supplemental insurance, I would indeed be bankrupt after two $50,000 surgeries within the past few years. Where is the love? For each other in our communities? When did it become politically expedient to be mean-spirited and short-sighted? Grumble, grumble, sputter, sputter.
Seriously, and Amen, sister! Tell it on the mountain! Raise your voice to the sky!
Amen. Enough with these “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” (“Then let them eat brioche.”)idiots. When I think of the Health Care debacle, the 5 Justices supporting Corporations as citizens with a right to vote with money, topped with UAV drones killing Afghan citizens (women and children) – just for starters – my head hurts and I want to pack my bag. To where? Where is the Revolution? Why aren’t people in the streets? Are we too busy, too apathetic, too tired? I sign online petition after petition – to no avail. It’s just one big cluster fuck. Sorry, I’m perturbed.
Loved your response, Charles. Anger – great motivator.
Haven’t read “Death Becomes Us” yet – will.
Let the love and light in.
Hallelujah! Sing it, at the top of your lungs! Out proud, out loud!
The bastards seem to have forgotten that we’re the people who got them into office. And their stupid decisions (or lack thereof) are rendering the best parts of this place null and void.
Blargh.