Article Contributed on: 8/4/2009 12:20:07 PM
OK, I don't really care about health care in France and the "fact" that everybody there loves it. Equally, I could care less that "everybody" in Canada or Great Britain hates theirs. Because, in reality, nobody is proposing that those countries run our health care system. Nobody.
What is important is that ours is not working for a lot of people. Estimates I have heard range between 45-55 million people in the U.S. who are uninsured or underinsured. While people are arguing that their health care system is fine, works for them, others are going without. What really needs to be the focus is to fix it for the latter and, by doing so, we can fix the imperfections in those systems that are more or less working. Everybody benefits.
First off, a lot of people have been throwing around the word "Medicaid" for those who can't afford health care because of their income level, because it is a government-funded program for those with lower incomes. Government-funded makes it sound like Medicare, funded by the federal government. It is not. It is only partially funded by the federal government, the rest by the state, and run by the individual states. It does not necessarily fund everyone who needs it. And when states cut budgets, sometimes Medicaid gets cut. When the state doesn't contribute its share, it doesn't get the matching funds from the federal government. That happened to my sister-in-law in Oregon.
Before I get to her story, I would like to propose that all of us out there, whether we are covered or not, insist that the least of our fellow countrymen be taken care of. What I would like for us to do is create a Quilt for a Healthy America. With 55 million people out there, we are all sure to know someone-a relative, a friend, maybe even one's own self-who needs good health care now, not sometime in the nebulous future. Political parties can bicker between themselves, even among their own party members, but that is not helping anyone. In fact, every day delayed may mean that someone dies-a child, a mother, a father, a person on their own. So we need to remind our elected officials that we are talking about people, not things, and they need to see the faces of these people-their constituents-and put the health care issue into reality,
We have had quilts before. The AIDS quilt brought the AIDS problem to the forefront of the awareness of the American people. No longer was it a "disease of 'those' people," but it became faces of sons and daughters, men and women, all of whom were cared for by someone, however they happened to contract the disease.
But this is different in one sense. The AIDS quilt was in memory of those who passed away. We need to make this quilt of those who need our help before they pass away, before they get too sick to help.
So sit down and figure out someone who needs better health care. Make a quilt square. You don't have to quilt it, just take a piece of cloth and make something for that one person you know who needs health care now. Be as creative as you can, but make it something from the heart. On a piece of paper, write out something about that person, who they are and why they need health care now. Take your quilt piece to church, to the library, to anyplace that people gather and ask to display it. Encourage a friend to do the same. Take a picture of your quilt piece. Post it to YourHub or whatever your local newspaper, radio or TV has, your local area Web site, or your Facebook or MySpace account with the story of your friend, your mother, your father, your son, your daughter, your grandchild, whoever you have identified needs good health care now. Find a song you like and link to it. I chose Petra Haden's version of "Let Your Love Flow" linked to http://music.myspace.com/Modules/MusicV2/Pages/PopUpPlayer.aspx?songid=&artid=&profid=491959389&plid=317475, basically because I find it upbeat and positive and want to let my love flow to anyone out there needing that solace and comfort. Call it Quilt for a Healthy America and post it. Send your quilt picture and story to your senator and congressman. Send it to the President of the United States. Send it to health care insurance companies and drug manufacturers. Send it to someone who has the power to make a difference. Preface your letter: I need better health care now for (me, my friend, my relative...). Can you imagine if we created 55 million squares and laid them end-to-end across the U.S.? Congress would have to put down their differences and work together constructively. Let's hit them up before they reconvene in September.
I made my quilt square this weekend. My nominee is my sister-in-law, Kim.
About 14 years ago, Kim was diagnosed with scleroderma. It is a terminal, autoimmune disease. It is not something she caused by overeating or smoking or driving too fast or drunk. It is debilitating, causing the connective tissues in her body to harden up. Currently the progress has been slowed down, however, it is not reversible and cause a lot of pain. Because of the limited mobility in her hands and large parts of her body, she cannot work as the accounting clerk she was or basically anything requiring mobility. She is on disability. She hadn't worked at her former company long enough to qualify for any kind of retirement.
One year after she had to quit her job, her insurance ran out. At that time she was eligible for Medicaid, which helped with the $1,300 per month in prescriptions. Without Medicaid, her disability payments would not have even come close to meeting her drug bills. That would have been on top of her normal living expenses and visits to her doctors. Several years into her treatment, a serious budget crunch hit the state of Oregon. First to go was some of the funding for Medicaid. Kim lost out on that, along with a lot of other people, including an Oregon State Trooper, who was injured in a work-related accident. She couldn't move out with us in Colorado because whatever she had through the Oregon would be lost here (and there are some other local programs to help with housing, utilities and the like). Because of the way things work, neither her brother nor our family could help financially much more than we were, which was limited, without her losing all of her benefits. In some cases, if benefits are lost and are needed again, you have to wait six months before you will qualify.
We helped Kim apply to the drug companies to get free medications (some drug companies do that for some medications if one is not covered by any medical assistance program). Now she is covered under Medicare D.
Things have gotten somewhat better, but still not all is right. Because of the condition, she is prone to circulation and dental problems, which aren't covered by anything. We do what we can for her, but more is needed.
Let our elected officials know. Let the insurance and drug companies know. Let the world know that we do care about our fellow Americans.