I recently read an entry in www.perkersonpark.com blog. It was about a man named Naylor who died as the result of kidney failure. He needed dialysis on a regular basis. He did not recieve the treatment on a regular basis because he did not have health insurance.
The author of this post reported that Mr. Naylor had not made particularly good decisions during the course of his life. His financial status had been severely compromised by his poor decision making; thus, he had no money for health insurance. The central question in this blog entry was whether or not Mr. Naylor deserved to die for his mistakes in life which left him without the ability to purchase health insurance.
The answer, it seems to me, is clearly, NO!
Who deserves to die? Americans cannot even agree on whether or not the most heinous of criminals and murderers deserve to die for their actions. Think of the numerous murderers, sex offenders, cheats, crooks and generally disgusting human beings who commit a litany of crimes. We do not kill most of them and cannot decide whether we should or not.
If we can't say that a serial killer deserves to die as a consequence of paying for his poor decisions, how can we say that Mr. Naylor deserved to die? Does any child deserve to die? Does any Senior citizen deserve to have to choose between purchasing groceries or medicine? The serial killer, whether on death row for 13 years awaiting execution, or doing life, has access to both food and medical care. He pays not one cent for his medications, his food, or his health care. The food may not be gourmet and the medical care inferior to a good civilian hospital, but it is care nonetheless. It's better than Mr. Naylor received.
The question now becomes, how best to provide health care for every citizen. I am no expert of course, but I have looked into the matter to some small degree. As usual, I found conflicting information from which it is difficult to draw a logical conclusion.
Some say that health care provided by the government is awful. They report long waits for appointments. One person, now living in the United States, told a tale of how her parents and relatives, living in a city of 350,000 persons, have to wait over 18 months for a dermatology consult. That might be okay if all one suffers from is acne, but not for something more serious.
When I lived in German, albeit many years ago, my landlord died of heart failure. He had been on the waiting list for surgery for more than 6 months. On the other hand, I know an American who ended up in a Paris hospital while on a European tour and received great care at no cost.
Our government does not seem to have done well at anything for many years. Gridlock has been the order of the day for the past 3 decades. Our government does not do well in diplomacy, warfare, regulation of financial cheats, dealing with criminals, providing a decent public education in a safe environment, updating and repairing the country's infrastructure, etc. Why would they do any better at providing quality healthcare for all Americans?
Certainly the private sector has done no better. Almost all my friends and aquaintances tell stories of denied claims, being shorted on benefits, increased co-pays, outrageous doctor and hospital bills, lack of quality care, etc. Greed, avarice and dishonesty characterize corporate health care. Mr. Naylor might well have died in any case given the state of American medicine. It is not the best in the world.
I am not a fan of Michael Moore. I do not completely believe the information presented in any of his documentaries. He has an agenda, as perhaps do we all, but some of the things he says have the ring of truth about them. I believe the inmates at Gitmo received better health care than most of us can afford. Mr. Naylor would probably not have died had he been a Gitmo internee. Perhaps he would now be living in Bermuda at taxpayer expense.
Comments