Over Forty and Loving It!

See, my fellow goddess and I worry about health care in this country. At the age of 15 I was diagnosed with a chronic illness. Netta, hasn’t had a lot of health care problems but she does have heart issues and then a few months ago she had to have her gall bladder removed.

When I was a teen, my parents’ health insurance covered me. At the age of 18 I got a job in a factory. During our contract negotiations our health care went to a private fund which Prudential covered. I paid $5 a week.

Years later, in my late 20’s, I went to school to become a nurse. I paid $94 every two weeks for my son and I. We had a $400 deductible because whether you had 2 or 4 or 6 people in your family, that’s the deductible you paid. If I had been single with no children, my deductible would have been $200.

When I met my husband, I went several years without insurance. When we tried to rent a place in Charlotte, guess what? My unpaid medical bills were negative toward my credit. We almost were denied being able to rent a townhome because of those bills.

I am constantly gobsmacked at the people in this country who will vote against their own best interests. Even more astounding, is the senior citizens who show up to those town hall meetings proclaiming “keep the government out of my health care!” Polls show that most of those seniors do indeed have government run health care via Medicare.

Even more irritating is the Glenn Becks, Shawn Hannitys, Bill O’Reillys and Rush Limbaughs of this country who lie to us like rugs. Oh, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Sarah Palin and her "death panels."

And we take it. Open wide, insert prick. Choose your oriface, we’re getting fucked either way.

It’s time to say enough is enough. It’s time to say we demand health care for all. It’s time to stop listening to the lies and using our heads. Unfortunately, they have systematically cut educational funding and no surprise, there are very few of us who can still think for ourselves.

We’ve sat through an illegal war, we’ve watched the top 1% get richer while the middle class gets poorer and is practically non-existent. If health care isn’t the one issue that makes us finally say “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” then nothing will.

Watch your sit-coms, sit on your asses and tell yourself “someone else will take care of it.”

It’s time to RISE up, people!

BTW, on the "death panel" thing. I once had a patient who had Hepititis C. His parents wanted him to get a liver transplant (you know, like Joe DiMaggio who was a chronic alcohol abuser and then when his liver gave out, he got pushed to the front of the line. He died less than 10 years later)

His doctor left us orders to convince the family to make him a do not resuscitate. And that doctor told the family flat out...you cannot afford a liver transplant for him. You don't have the money and you don't have the $200,000+ dollars to get him one.

And so when they try to scare you with "rationing care," your care is already rationed. Only now, the people who are rationing your care have more than one home, a boat, take vacations to other countries you can only dream of visiting.