[Ed. Note: This post may make me a bad citizen. Also this is a ridiculous thing for someone who wants to work in public policy to publish for all to see but what can I say, I like to live on the edge.]
Ok, is it just me or is health care reform boring? Sometimes I honestly can't believe that we are still talking about it. Here is an idea that some people don't seem to get: Basic human rights. Say it with me everyone. BASIC. HUMAN. RIGHTS. Now say it like Stevie Wonder. Yes! Good head work. Now sing it like Donna Summer while doing the Saturday Night Fever pointing dance. Ha! You look like a fool.
But I use that musical interlude to remind everyone that there are some rights that every person deserves just by virtue of being a human being. Like the right to know why your own government is holding you. And the right to education (don't get all upset uber-conservatives and libertarians, we are already paying for that and it is going well so you lose). Shouldn't access to health care be a human right?
Ok calm down again uber-conservs. I'm not saying every starlet gets a free boob job and every granny gets a motorized scooter (although I think Wilford Brimley may have already taken care of that). I'm just saying that everyone should have a chance. And I'm saying while I sit at home and watch Ugly Betty on my LCD TV there should not be a lady ten miles away who gets evicted and can't buy her children food just because she got cancer.
"Oh, it's just so expensive" say the uber-conservs. Well yes, it is extremely expensive. We are all going to have to pay more, perhaps a lot more. But sometimes you just have to wake up, put on your big girl panties, and do what has to be done because it is the right thing and we are making the world a better place one decision at a time. Even though initially it is a strange and inconvenient and costly, it will all turn out ok. If you doubt me, open up your Encyclopedia Britannica* and check out these topics: the fourteenth amendment abolishing slavery, woman's suffrage, the downfall of the lava lamp.
I'm just saying, things like required transplant surgery should not be denied people because of expense. Can't we all just get a lung? [Paraphrase shout out to Rodney King.] Anyway, if you made it through this rant, you are not entitled to reimbursement for your narcolepsy treatments.
Healthcare Poem:
Surgery is expensive,
Medical bills are trying.
If we've made so many advances,
What is all this money buying?
* Ha! Do those even exist anymore? Remember how you could buy certain letters separately? Like there was nothing important to learn that started with Q. Ahhaha...oooh. Actually I can't think of anything academic starting with a Q.
I do not know why this day came to be known as Black Friday and between you, me, and the deep blue sea I don't really care enough to research it. Tryptophan-induced honesty! But I am on a serious budget reduction so I shall do no shopping on this day, even though a brand new discount store opened recently and is apparently giving away fabulous clothing.
