I know there are many STRONG opinions on the health care debate. I am not for a government run health care system but I am ALL FOR reform. I hate all of the “Most people who want health care have it” statements because that simply is not true. A 12 year old kid died in Baltimore our last year there because of a tooth ach turned infection. What happened was his single mother (without dental insurance) tried to give him pain killers while she saved money to take him in to the dentist. When he got ill she took him to the ER and HE DIED from the infection! This is not a made up story – it was all over the news and it is real. My brother (a white middle class fellow – while the B-more kid was black) had the SAME infection but had it fixed and lived. In fact, my father got the statement and just ONE bag of the IV treatment was $25,000!! No joke. But Mike’s insurance paid for it. I am not playing any race card here, just stating that everyone I hear complaining saying that “people who want health insurance have it” does not see the poverty that exists in our own nation and all the ones I have heard make these remarks are in fact white middle class people.
I can only speak for myself (and I’ve told some of you this before) but when Rob started school and I was home with Malachi and only the baby qualified for medical care. Making $10,000 annually, neither Rob nor I qualified. Sure, if we had walked into an ER we'd most likely be treated but simple tests and care would be hundreds if not thousands of dollars that would impossible for us to pay back. We were hard working doing what they tell you to do "Go to college, better yourself" and we didn't qualify. We were both without insurance for years (and that was scary).
AND the closest place I was allowed to fill any prescriptions for Malachi was an hour away and many times I honesty could not come up with the gas money to get there. Do you know what it feels like to look at your sick child and have to wait for pay day to give them the medicine they need? It is torture that I still grieve, still cry about.
I know this next statement will piss people off but here goes anyway: Why is it that Christians will fund war with billons of dollars that kills thousands but won’t pay $20 to help a fellow American (neighbor) get well? Seems like we’re most concern with ourselves and our way of life than our fellow man/woman.
Please comment if you want but no stats or scare tactics, especially since 43.7% of stats are made up. I want to hear YOUR experience not what you’ve heard.
“If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor he too will cry out and not be answered.” – Proverbs 21:13
