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Sometimes the world sucks
May. 19th, 2009 08:53 amIf you have any doubt about why the US needs healthcare reform, please go read this.
In short, a 27-year-old man who has dilated cardiomyopathy (which happens to be what I have) needs a heart transplant, or he will die within a couple of months. However, Medicare insurance will not pay for the surgery, and he can’t get private insurance because of the pre-existing condition.
Now, I ask you – why should insurance companies (including our government) have the power to tell someone they can’t have life-saving surgery? What gives them the fucking right? Are we as a society okay with saying “no, I’m sorry, the treatment that would help you is too expensive; you can’t have it”?
Sometimes I really, really hate living in this time in history. Sure, 100 years from now, things will be better in this way and many others. People will get the health care they need, period. Insurance will cover therapies that make life better for people with autism. Gay and lesbian people will be able to marry the person they love, and not worry that bigots will come along and take away that right. Racial discrimination will be something that the world looks back on with shame and not something that people live with on a daily basis.
But it doesn’t change how much not having those things sucks now.
In short, a 27-year-old man who has dilated cardiomyopathy (which happens to be what I have) needs a heart transplant, or he will die within a couple of months. However, Medicare insurance will not pay for the surgery, and he can’t get private insurance because of the pre-existing condition.
Now, I ask you – why should insurance companies (including our government) have the power to tell someone they can’t have life-saving surgery? What gives them the fucking right? Are we as a society okay with saying “no, I’m sorry, the treatment that would help you is too expensive; you can’t have it”?
Sometimes I really, really hate living in this time in history. Sure, 100 years from now, things will be better in this way and many others. People will get the health care they need, period. Insurance will cover therapies that make life better for people with autism. Gay and lesbian people will be able to marry the person they love, and not worry that bigots will come along and take away that right. Racial discrimination will be something that the world looks back on with shame and not something that people live with on a daily basis.
But it doesn’t change how much not having those things sucks now.
