Something Must be Done

Jon over at Blurbomat has had a pretty decent conversation going for the last couple of days on Health Care in the US. He recently quit his job to pursue other things and he and his family are living off of the proceeds from his and his wife’s blogs. You probably have heard of his wife, she’s Heather of Dooce fame. There has been a noticed commercialization of Dooce especially, but really I don’t mind as the content is still there and thats what I go for.

In any case, because they are both self-employed along with some other reasons that he explains, they have had some trouble getting health coverage. The basics of the discussion are that the US health care industry has become monopolistic. Our politicians keep saying that they are going to do something about it, then we vote them in and they start getting lobby money from the drug companies and get nothing done. Jon put it splendidly:

I plan on writing my local and federal representatives about this situation, but I don’t have a lot of faith that I’ll be heard above the insurance lobby. Individuals who need health care coverage have little recourse.

Another problem is that when you begin talking about universal health care for the masses, you begin to pick up dissenters who believe that it would be the first step towards a socialist society. They are wrong. Social Security was the first step towards a government controlled socialist society. You don’t see them screaming about their Social Security do you? In fact, when President Bush was beginning to talk about privatization of Social Security last year they were screaming that it was going to be taken away.

The bottom line is this: We already have money taken out of our paychecks for Social Security and Medicare directly. We have Federal taxes taken out for a number of other state run medical functions. Why not lump Medicare and every other State funded medical project together as a Universal health care plan? Why? DRUG COMPANY LOBBY MONEY. Plain and Simple. In his post today, Jon asked us all a question and if you’re reading this, I encourage you to go and leave your answer as a comment. His question was this:

How do we make a change? How many of us will it take? Where do we go and who do we talk to that will listen? Is it time to start petitions and marching? Protests? What do we want? What sacrifices will have to be made? How will universal care take away someone else’s freedom/liberty (fries)?

My answer: It will take a majority of the citizens of the United States. Those of us that actually believe that it could work do not have the power to over come the lobbyists. We have to begin mass quantities of our own “lobbying” of our politicians. Make sure that they know that we will disscontinue voting for them if they don’t follow through with their promises. The time for petitions is upon us, but I think we’ll wait a little while for the marching an protesting. We want affordable health care, and if the only way to get that is through government sponsorship, then so be it. Some of us will have to sacrifice extra from our paychecks, and our time with our families to make it happen. Universal care does affect everyone, especially the Doctors, Lawyers, Drug Companies, and the employees of Drug Companies.

One final question from me: Can it be done?

You can read the full text of Jon’s posts at his blog. The first one is here. The second here.

Technorati Tags: Health Care, Drug Lobby, Universal Care