Don't Let Your Neighbors Die

I said once and have said often in regards to the benevolence of God, that the most fundamental and basic criterion, the minimum requirement for a father be he heavenly or earthly is that he not let his children suffer or die if it is within his power to prevent it. Allowing preventable suffering to occur is incompatible with moral virtue. This is self-evident and should require no further argument. The greatest good for the greatest number should be the goal of any ethical society that holds the sanctity of human life above all other virtues. What then must we think of our fellow Americans who oppose universal health care? How can we think them anything but evil and reprehensible?

If my only objection to allowing millions of low income mothers to receive prenatal care and reduce infant mortality is that I don't want my taxes to go up then what does that say about my love of humanity? If my only objection to allowing millions of my fellow Americans to receive preventive care that might forestall some debilitating illness is that it does not adhere to my dogmatic capitalist ideology then what does that say about my own benevolence? If I would allow my hatred of a single politician or political party to get in the way of one diabetic receiving insulin, one cancer or Leukemia patient receiving chemo, one AIDS patient receiving integrase inhibitors,then I would be a monster, a villain, a thoroughly reprehensible human being.

So then what are the motivations behind those who protest so vehemently against government sponsored health care or socialized medicine or public health care or whatever they want to call it? We must assume they are not all evil and greedy no matter how much we may wish to paint them as such? So how do they justify their seeming inhumanity.

"I don't want my tax dollars going to fund abortions!"
"I don't want my tax dollars paying for illegal immigrants!"
"I don't want the government deciding whether I or my loved ones are too old or sick to waste money on!"
"I don't want long lines for health care like they have at the DMV and the post office!"
"I don't want government run health care to have an unfair competitive advantage over private health care and put all those companies out of business increasing unemployment and causing another economic crisis!"

Did I get them all? Okay, so let's look at these objections one at a time.

I'm not a Christian so I have no objection to abortion for religious reasons. I do have an objection to hundreds of thousands of unwanted children being born into the already overcrowded ghettoes of America and what that would do to both the crime rate and the economy. Think of the neighborhood crackwhore or meth addict and her stream of endless "Baby Daddies" getting knocked up in between trips to rehab and/or the penitentiary and tell me how society would benefit from forcing them to give birth to children doomed to repeat the cycle? But that's just my opinion and it is not a popular one to be sure. The reality is that the proposed health care overhaul does not provide for abortions anymore than private health care does yet I don't see anyone picketing Blue Cross or Cigna.

The idea that universal health care would cover illegal immigrants is a stupid one. Your tax dollars are already paying for the health care of illegal immigrant but only at twice the rate because they are showing up in emergency rooms. Just like you'd would be covered by Canada's health care system if you got injured on a trip to Toronto. Urgent care costs thousands more than preventive medicine. But they are trying to find a way to exclude illegal immigrants just for you folks.

If you believe that there will be death panels than you and Sarah Palin deserve each other. The idea was to have end of life counseling but don't worry, the right-wing idiots have scared that out of the final bill so you can still waste thousands of dollars of medical care on vegetative corpses with heartbeats and no brain activity and no one will suggest that maybe it's time to pull the plug. Happy?

Those who suggest that government run health care would look like the DMV are forgetting that we aren't talking about government hospitals like in Russian. You would still go to the same hospitals and primary care physicians. It's just your insurance that would be owned by the government. You know, like the current government run health care known as Medicare? See any geriatric cheese lines forming at the doctor's office, pharmacies, or hospitals with seniors waiting months to be seen the way the Republicans are trying to scare you into thinking there will be? No? Now what does that tell you? Come on. Put your thinking caps on.

Now, the idea that a public health care option would have an unfair competitive advantage over private insurance is a good one. My answer is this. So? There needs to be more competition in the insurance market where some states are monopolized by only a handful of providers. Why should I care if these billion dollar companies have to lower their rates and make somewhat smaller profits. Do I think government health care would put them out of business? Of course not. They and the pharmaceutical companies would just have to cut back on a few jets and get smaller corporate bonuses come Christmas time.

Look, the bottom line is this. People are dying and going bankrupt because they don't have health insurance. If you're a decent and moral person you have an obligation to do something about it. There is no excuse. None of the worries I listed above are enough for one infant to die because they didn't get proper prenatal care. Not one of them is enough for one cancer patient to go without chemo. Are we a moral country or does capitalism supercede all morality? That is the only question here.