I started my life in a bad situation. My mother and father hated each other and by the time I was 6 months old they were divorced. My mother moved to Columbus, OH with my brother and I where we were thrown into poverty. My father refused to pay child support, didn’t bother visiting us and my mother was on her own raising to babies1. Within two years, my mother had given birth to Other Sis and was a little deeper in the hole.
Back then we had welfare, but it was designed in such a way that a poverty-stricken single mother couldn’t get out once she got in. If she took even a small part-time job, her kids were thrown off of Medicaid and her food stamps were taken away. There was no program to help with rent, no way for her to get help with training and furthering her education. We did have programs that helped with extra food, bus passes and clothes. She found every program she could find for help and went with it. There was no help from either father of her children.
Every year before we started school my mother would go to Charity Newsie to get out school clothes. This was a program offered in Columbus and was, I suppose, a gigantic help to impoverished parents. But is sucked ass for the kids who had to wear those clothes to school. There were only about three outfits that we could choose from and the other kids (the ones who didn’t get Charity Newsie) knew we were poor and picked on us. It was horrible. I was an introverted kid who didn’t even attempt to make friends. I remember very clearly that no one seemed to like me and I was beaten up quite a few times. I’ve blocked out a lot of my childhood in Columbus. I remember the cockroaches, the times without utilities, the time my mother attempted suicide and the school kids hating me. I don’t have any good memories of that part of my childhood.
When my mother tried to kill herself, my great-grandmother came to save us and we were shipped off to live on my aunt’s farm for a while. I still don’t know what happened to my mother during that time. I remember that I loved having a “normal” family and that my life seemed awesome. We went to family functions, went fishing, had cook-outs and real clothes. Other Sis would sometimes ask about our mother, but I don’t remember caring too awfully much. I didn’t want to go back. I wanted to stay forever and ever. Of course, my mother came for us eventually. A woman from the welfare helped her get out to the farm to pick us up. Apparently my aunt refused to bring us home. She wanted us to stay with her because my mother just couldn’t do it. In a lot of ways she was right. My mother struggled with depression and was unable to provide for us on her own. I was incredibly broken when I left that farm.
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Riding My Pink Pony
I have learned (or maybe I already did know but forgot about it) that my insurance only pays for 5 doctors visits a year. That’s it. In the last two months I’ve been three times because of my uterine “issues”– for which I’m due another visit. Tuesday I go for a fourth visit as I’ve found a Fibromyalgia specialist to see here in town. New Years eve will be the fifth because I’m to go back to the doctor for my biopsy results.
So, I was wondering what would happen if this insurance bill passes (I imagine something between the House and Senate versions). According to the Kaiser Family Foundation subsidy calculator I would be eligible for Medicaid. Not only that, but I could drop my employer’s plan to get it. And if I didn’t want Medicaid (because Medicaid doctors generally suck) I could look online for a better plan than I have and be able to purchase it. Because of that simple ability I would have a more affordable choice– at least if history and current trends are any factor. The provider with the best benefits for the least amount of money would get the most customers, right? At least that’s what I’ve been reading and hearing. When I’m not reading the manufactured outrage from the Purists who think we should have it all– or nothing.
They were pissed off that the public option wasn’t good enough. Their goal was to get us all to call our Democratic representatives (because us Democrats eat our own) and tell them how much they suck. This was after they did the stories and letters and reading the names of the dead– which seemed to be working, especially among the public at large (those people in the “middle” who seem to get all the attention). Except some of the louder voices on our side wanted on t.v. So we were told to be pissed at every fucking body and get our every demand met. Well, we see how well that worked out don’t we?
We’ve got women dying at alarming rates due to heart disease but these purists would rather focus on the “compromise” provided to Ben Nelson to secure his vote. They scream that women are going to die because some states and some insurance plans will be able to opt-out of providing abortion coverage. Do they give a flying fuck about the number one killer of women in America? Apparently those lives just don’t matter.
Or what about the women, particularly women of color1, who die each year because of complications from something as treatable as diabetes? There are women who are dying right now that could have benefited from this bill. But the purists say “NO! There’s not enough abortion coverage! Fuck those women!”
What about the women who go without going to the doctor and getting screened early for such diseases as cervical, breast and/or uterine cancers– all of which have higher survival rates when the disease is caught on time? Well, say the Purists, these women would then have to pay for their treatments and then BANKRUPTCY!! But which is better? A dead woman or a bankrupt woman?
What about the women who suffer, I as do, from Fibromyalgia? Or those with chronic depression? What about the multitudes of other diseases that primarily affect women, which are under diagnosed, that would be treated had these women had access to a fucking doctor? Those women don’t matter because they’re not trying to get an abortion? Give me a fucking break.
As far as I’m concerned, this is just as bad as those fuckers on the other side who scream “Every child is precious!” as long as that child is safely ensconced in the womb– once it takes it’s first breath they don’t care anymore. These screamers2 on our side are doing so to protect a woman’s right to her own womb– without regard to her heart or pancreas or immune system or mental health. They call those of us who support this bill “paid shills” or “insurance lackeys” or “uninformed” or “dim-witted”. And yet they discount the lives of millions of women who may very well benefit from this damned health insurance bill. You want to save my womb so I can die from a heart attack? Gee, thanks.
Of course, we’re also supposed to forget the fact that Medicaid/Medicare in some states right this very minute doesn’t pay for elective abortions3. Nothing in this bill changes that. Nothing. They say that middle class women are going to suffer. Guess what? In some states, women right now can’t find a doctor to perform an elective abortion procedure for them– thanks to conscience clauses. OMG! Those aren’t addressed in either bill either! KILL THE BILL!! But we’re worried about middle class women when poor women in Ohio have to shell out $300 or more of money that could be better spent elsewhere. These are fights within the states because no one in the federal government is going to take them up. No one. And taking this bill away from the millions of people it will help isn’t making the case stronger.
Still, this bill (either of them) does a lot to address of problems that women and their fellow men have with regard to health insurance. And if I wasn’t sick right now, I’d dig up the links that support my argument (though these are from “former” Progressives– those that have “sold out” and are no longer credible, apparently). But you can start at the Kaiser Family Foundation for a PDF of their analysis on Women’s health issues with this reform. I don’t expect any purists to read the linked pages, of course, because it doesn’t prescribe a magic pill for the single issue on their mind. I add it here because I wanted to show that this is something that I’m not exactly ignorant of (though I admittedly am not as learned as some of the newest class of “sell outs” to the Progressive cause).
The status quo, to me, is no longer acceptable– for obvious reasons. Doing nothing is not better than doing something. I’m sorry. Waiting for the insurance industry to police itself– or better yet, waiting for that magical president who will fix the whole system in one fell swoop– doesn’t do anyone any good. At least it doesn’t do anyone any good who really needs the help. Doing nothing, killing the bill, leaves them exactly where they were before this debate even began. I thought we were trying to improve that situation. I didn’t get my pony either, goddamn it, but that doesn’t mean I want shit to stay exactly the same as it is. Something has got to start changing and guess what? This is a start.
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