When your newborn son or daughter faces death because of a heart condition – a pre-existing condition – all the political rhetoric in the world has no meaning. All that matters is that your child is able to be the recipient of the very best scientific knowledge, equipment, professional experience and expertise, attention and care that will enable him or her to live a full life. However, no one should have to declare bankruptcy in order to afford those critical and necessary services.
Not only did Kimmel go to the heart
of the healthcare matter, his audience agreed with his assessment and went
along with him. And so, perhaps, from
the heart of a comedian, we have heard what is missing from most of our
politics, our governing and our politicians: a commitment to enhancement of
people’s lives. There is an enormous
communal need for this commitment to saving lives; a commitment to putting the
needs and priorities of ordinary people at the center of our attempts to bring
some societal order out of the randomness and chaos that greets us all as we
emerge from the relative safety of a mother’s womb.
[I have no objection to considering
the implications of this fundamental principle in relation to the protection of
the unborn as well; just not in this piece. However, you might want to consider some references
to that debate in my Post of 04/02/2016]
My focus in this piece is the rather
obvious and dubious lack of political attention to the lives of citizens as the
top priority for any piece of legislation, executive order, regulation,
contract, grant or policy that emanates from our national, state or local
governmental entities.
We seem so enraptured and captured by the glitter of ideology and pandering rhetoric that we tend to miss the fact that women, children, workers and retirees – among others – are being neglected, ignored and abused every time an economic or political ideology is placed before humaneness as the motive for legislation and judicial decision-making. It is shameful, for instance, when children are denied programs that provide for nutritious meals at school, or seniors are denied a prepared meal and companionship through Meals on Wheels, or laborers are denied bargaining rights and pensions, or people in dire circumstances are denied healthcare, adequate housing, and a decent minimum wage for their work.
We seem so enraptured and captured by the glitter of ideology and pandering rhetoric that we tend to miss the fact that women, children, workers and retirees – among others – are being neglected, ignored and abused every time an economic or political ideology is placed before humaneness as the motive for legislation and judicial decision-making. It is shameful, for instance, when children are denied programs that provide for nutritious meals at school, or seniors are denied a prepared meal and companionship through Meals on Wheels, or laborers are denied bargaining rights and pensions, or people in dire circumstances are denied healthcare, adequate housing, and a decent minimum wage for their work.
Have we come to the point where the
business and profits of multi-national corporations, drug companies, the
nursing home industry, the financial sector, insurance companies, food
processing plants and fossil fuel companies are more important than the lives
of the one in five children living in poverty?
Is the build-up of weapons of mass destruction more important than the
public education of our children? Is our
obsession with tax subsidies for the rich more palatable than our
constitutional and societal contract for equal rights, equal justice and equal
opportunity? Do we all as a democratic
society have an obligation to care for vulnerable and challenged people, or are
we meant to go our separate ways and act as though there is no mutual
responsibility for others?
There is no greater need in our
society right now than a return to simple fundamental axioms and truths that made
this country great. To make “America
Great Again” has little or nothing to do with austerity budgets, with military
build-up, with lower taxes for the rich and higher taxes for the middle class,
with trickle-down economics theory, with jingoistic nationalism, or with immigrant-bashing,
vulgar speech and hateful attitudes expressed toward racial and ethnic
minorities. “Making America Great Again”
is a flawed slogan from its inception because it glorifies “Greatness” above
“rightness.” It touts might above right
and rights. It emanates enmity instead
of empathy. It embraces authoritarian
and dictatorial rhetoric and action above democratic values like “one person
one vote” or “liberty and justice for all.”
All this debate about healthcare
coverage, benefits, premiums, co-pays, pre-existing conditions, comes down to
intention and purpose. What after all,
is the purpose of healthcare legislation?
Is it to provide an opportunity for many more people to be able to
afford medical coverage, or is it to inculcate conservative principles into the
minds and lives of more citizens? Are we
more concerned with people’s lives and welfare or with political principles and
political correctness? I venture to say that
conservative Republicans have built their movement, and their entire agenda on
conservative philosophy, not on human rights or human dignity. in essence, conservative Republicans have
taken away a basic commitment to human welfare extending back to Lincoln that somehow
got turned around to sound as though people in need, or in dire circumstances
or who are somehow different from a white protestant norm are unworthy and
undeserving of help. In fact, a Republican
congressman heard recently on TV made it plain that “those people” cannot
expect someone else to purchase health insurance for them.
And therein lies the nugget of why
the heart has disappeared from that wing of the Grand Old Party. There is nothing left but a bumper-sticker-mentality
that expresses their ideology but has replaced rationality. A few slogans, using their words, will suffice
to show what I mean:
·
Get a job
·
Why should I pay for
healthcare for someone else
·
Immigrants are thieves,
murderers, drug dealers
·
Repeal and Replace
Obamacare
·
Keep people safe - build the Wall
·
Obamacare is dying on the
vine
·
Shutting down government
is good
·
States are closer to the
people
·
Dictators Deserve Your
Love
·
Get Rid of Entitlements
·
Tax cuts for the rich benefit
everyone
·
Preemptive bombings show
our strength
·
Manufacturing jobs are
coming back
There are just so many.... And every one of them is backed up by
stunning bits of rhetoric that often have no place in a democracy. We have heard too much about the failings, faults
and criminality of undocumented Mexicans who come across our southern
borders. We have endured the bashing of
Islamic people as though they are all potential or actual terrorists. We have been subjected to lie after lie about
Obamacare – its tax burden, its damage to small business, its rising copays and
increase in premiums. Funny how so many
millions are still a part of it and more have joined during the open enrollment
periods even as it comes under relentless attack. Could it possibly have anything to do with
the fact that subsidies are still viable and expansion of Medicaid is still in
effect? Of course.
But, Republican conservatives do not want to
talk about the underlying importance of subsidies for those who cannot afford
the high cost of health insurance because those Republicans are too busy trying to defund as
many programs as they possibly can that help those with special needs. Meanwhile, they ignore the enormous amounts
of money being extracted from our Tax system to subsidize the rich and the
powerful, with absolutely no oversight, regulation or penalties for fraud and
waste. And now, the Donald and his henchmen stand
ready to reward these rich welfare kings and queens with further tax breaks
that will simply serve to further undermine the middle class tax payer.
It is perhaps useless to say it, but
the bumper sticker mentality of these perpetrators of puerile philosophy and
rhetoric is matched only by the Big Lies they use to back up their claims. Let us
stay with the example of their 7-year assault on Obamacare. In
2012, 2014 and 2016, Republicans used every lie they could manufacture in order
to denigrate the ACA, to turn people against it and against Obama and the
Democrats, and to win seats in the House, the Senate, and finally in the Oval Office. They experienced electoral victories that
will end up costing us more than can be imagined. Here are three of the biggest lies about
Obamacare that have served Republicans well in their quest for complete control
of our governmental apparatus.
1) Obamacare
is collapsing under its own weight – if
true:
a. how come a record number (over 6 million)
enrolled during the last enrollment period of Nov 1, 2016 to Jan. 31, 2017?
b. how
come the House voted to exempt themselves from mandated coverage under the
AHCA, leaving them under Obamacare as mandated by that Law?
c. how
come some health insurance companies (Anthem/Cigna and Centeen) are expanding
their presence on market exchanges? Apparently,
there is still profit to be made by companies filling the void left by Aetna
and HCU.
d. how
come the AMA, the ADA, PNA, and others oppose Trumpcare and the repeal of
Obamacare?
e. How
come over 55% of people in Gallup poll (and above 50% in other polls) now favor
the continuation of Obamacare?
2) Premiums
are rising dramatically – inadequate as a measure of collapse, because:
a. This
isn’t a surprise; it was known from the beginning that it might happen
b. The
original estimates by insurance companies were off in terms of how much their
plans would have to charge in order to break even; this involved a
miscalculation of how many would be very sick, how many younger healthy people
would sign-up and how intensively newly acquired coverage would be utilized.
c. A
back-up mechanism for assisting insurance companies who suffered losses in the
beginning was in place until Republicans threw it out in December of 2014. That action may help explain why premiums had
to be raised so drastically, and why some companies have had to withdraw from
the market (consult my post of March 7, 2017)
d. The
one item that Republicans refuse to mention is that for those living under poverty
guidelines, and others a bit further up the income scale, there are federal subsidies under Obamacare that
rise in accordance with the rise in premiums. “87% of people who
selected marketplace plans... got financial assistance. On average, ACA marketplace consumers receiving tax
credits are literally paying exactly the same this year as last year -- $106
per month.“ [Larry
Levitt, VP of Kaiser Foundation].
3) States can handle this more effectively than the federal
government because they are closer to the people - totally untrue because:
1. States are struggling just to maintain
their own programs because they do not have enough tax revenue. They may be closer to the people, but they do
not have a broad -enough tax base to enable them to spend what is necessary to
effectively operate large programs meant to serve all their citizens. Why is one of the favorite slogans of state
governors and legislators “do More with Less”? Take it from a former 25-year state program
director in one of our largest and richest states: fewer resources leads to one primary
result: doing “Less with Less”!
2. States are able to function, and to provide services
to a relatively large cohort of their citizens primarily because of one thing: they receive federal money for many of
the programs they operate, but state governors and legislators consistently
complain that “it is not enough to cover the mandates” of the programs they run
on behalf of the federal government.
Right now, the most
vociferous and continuous complaint is in regard to Medicaid, which the states
and their sub-divisions (county departments of social services in my state) end
up managing. The states complain they don’t
receive enough administrative money to run the mandated Medicaid programs, let
alone the ‘waiver’ programs. Yet the
Republicans in Congress want to devolve total responsibility for Medicaid to
the states, without adequate money to cover administrative costs that will
sky-rocket with such devolvement. More
staff, more local offices, more computers and IT personnel, more field workers,
more reports – all of it amounts to one thing:
not enough money allotted to hire enough staff and administrators or to
fund enough local social services offices to carry out all the programs and
benefits involved. The result: an inevitable
cut in benefits to save money resulting in fewer people adequately covered. No other result is possible if Trump and the Trumpets
in Congress carry forward their proposed cut of almost a trillion dollars ($880
billion) out of Medicaid funds in order to lower the taxes of the richest 1%. The result: states will “Do a Lot Less with a Lot Less!”
3. Federal Subsidies are the key
to why Obamacare works for so many millions of uninsured persons. According to
obamacarefacts.com: Those subsidies will
not be available to enrollees of the ill-conceived Trumpcare.
The poorly-conceived, atrociously-handled
and frighteningly-partisan AHCA has done what
other actions have not. People are now
seriously taking a look, or asking questions about, how Trumpcare will affect
their personal situation. That is different
from a debate about generalized concepts, and introduces an element that cannot
be helpful to Republican candidates. If
people perceive that they might be personally harmed by a piece of legislation,
they will hold not just their own representative responsible, but blame the
Party that is in the majority. Too bad
that very personal evaluative element has so-far failed to enter discussion of
other similar kinds of legislation and rule-making. So let us take a few moments to consider what
could be in store, on an individualized-harm basis, in other actions that Trump
has in his lethal arsenal.
WAR
– no matter how or where you look, Trump has pre-emptive strikes against
certain nations on his agenda – in fact, his Secretaries of State and Defense
seem to want to remind us that “everything is on the table” – which presumes
that nuclear war is not off the table.
Talk about personal harm...!
But even conventional wars bring
personal harm to individuals and families – loss of loved ones in battle, the
re-instituting of a draft which affects the futures of our young people; prices
go up, job growth slows down, wages remain stagnant, and children end up with
absent fathers and/or mothers. And what
about outcomes – more suicides of vets, more health issues, more PTSD, more
emotional break-downs, more shootings of the innocent by emotionally-disabled
people affected by WAR. Personal
consequences of war-mongering are vastly under-estimated. Get ready to suffer personal hurt and harm...
BUDGET-
I’m sorry, but the Trump budget is immoral in its scope of probable harmful
outcomes, especially as concerns mothers and children. Here are just a few (for
more, consult my Post of 3/21/2017)
·
Denial of funding to
Planned Parenthood
·
Loss of Women Infant and
Children (WIC) nutrition funds
·
Cut to school brunches
and lunches for vulnerable students
·
Loss of Head Start
·
Before and after-school programs cut
·
Interagency Council on
Homelessness gone
·
Loss of Foster
Grandparent mentoring of children with challenges and special needs
PUBLIC
SCHOOLS-
Betsy
DeVos is working hard behind the scenes to increase parental choice of school
settings. That’s the line you will
regret swallowing. Secretary DeVos is
working to diminish and to destroy public education in this country. “Choice” is another bumper-sticker slogan
standing for something other than what it may imply on the surface. Choice in radical Republican parlance is a
stand-in for private, for-profit education facilities. DeVos wants to take us back to 18th
and 19th century England (and parts of Europe) where private schools
run by churches, individual groups representing rich donors, individual former governesses,
and families with some educational background, ran schools that charged fees or
tuition to their clients. For any who
could not afford to send their children to such private schools, there was a
network of charity schools run by benevolent associations, or churches, and
finally by the government in 1880. All
of the “leftovers” from society got to “choose” (attend) these “public schools.”
The concept of “greater choice” is a
tricky one in Trump-world. In Trumpcare,
it comes down to a choice between choosing to pay for a doctor or medicine or treatment
versus buying something to eat or paying the rent. As to schools and education, it comes down to
who you are and what you can afford – a private charter school or “charity”
(public) school.
It is time to begin to judge the
efficacy of the Trump administration by a new standard: how
much personal hurt and harm is being caused by their ideology, their
policies, their programs, their austerity budgets for 99% of us, their lies,
their bumper-sticker mentality, and their attacks on the virtues, values and
ideals of democracy, as well as their personal attacks against women and
children; AND AGAINST ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH THEM? If they only had a HEART!
