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A Lifetime in Shoes

All sorts of efforts are now coming out of the woodwork to encourage people to find the activist within to promote real health care reform. One of those efforts is the Campaign for Better Health Care’s “Get It Done!” campaign. The point is to encourage people to drop off shoes at their Congressional representatives’ offices to symbolize someone who has died or is in danger of dying due to lack of health care.

You notice I said “health CARE,” not insurance. Because as most of us know, especially those on Medicaid or Medicare, “coverage” does not, and never will, guarantee care.

According to the CBHC, 11,000 people have died in Illinois in the last 15 years due to lack of health care. One must wonder how that number would be increased if it included all those who HAD insurance but still didn’t get the care they needed. And how many never got to take the drugs they needed?

As the pharmaceutical and insurance company lobbyists work harder than they have ever worked to earn their six-figure salaries in order to keep the current system of capitalistic greed and profit steamrolling over whatever efforts are made to eradicate the threat that it poses to those of us who will never see six figures of anything but medical bills, organizations like the CBHC and Health Care for America Now try to prod us to get up and get vocal.

A recent poll done by Research 2000 revealed that, contrary to the capitalistic spin, 68% of people in Illinois favor a public plan for all as part of any real reform. No, this does not mean that you can’t continue to pay through the nose for your United Healthcare or any other private policy. But IF YOU CHOOSE (remember all that fear-mongering Republican talk about choice? Oh, wait, that’s choice only in terms of who you choose to PAY, not choice in terms of who you choose to love, whether or not you choose to be a parent, or any other life choice that has nothing to do with someone making a profit), you could buy into a government-run, non-profit system. Their fear is NOT that government would be controlling the health care choices of the American people. Their fear is that so many would choose the government system that the private companies would no longer be able to maintain the strangle-hold they currently have on our wallets and therefore would not be making the profits that can then be invested in political campaigns.

Uh-huh. So get those old shoes out of the Goodwill bag and leave them with a note about the person you lost or your fears about who’s next at the door of your elected representatives. Go to the Health Care for America Now rally on Wednesday, February 24 from 6:00 – 7:00 at the Chicago Temple, 77 W Washington St. inside on the first floor. Write your senators and representatives, write a letter to the editor, Google “health care reform” and read blogs and comment and write your own. Let them know we’re out here and we’re ready to pull a “Network” moment.
And, no, I am not speaking for TPAN or Positively Aware. This is just me, being mad as hell and not taking it anymore. I hope you join me.