Archive for March 3rd, 2009
Obama’s Healthcare Controversy
Last week, President Obama said that health care reform was among his top priorities, but 49% of United States voters do not seem to agree, during an economic crisis. Obama brought Americans to tears with his hope, and as inspiring as he was, his own supporters are starting to believe it’s unrealistic to focus solely on health care when the economy is destroying everything.
This raises a complicated issue. Without your health, you truly have nothing. Losing a job is incomparable to the loss of human life. One of my best friends has gall stones, and she nearly burst into tears when she went to the hospital and was immediately asked if she had insurance. Thankfully, she did, but she was unsure at first. Even if she didn’t have insurance as she suspected, why should she let herself writhe in pain until it temporarily subsides? When my father was diagnosed with cancer, he was told he needed an $18,000 shot of chemotherapy every three weeks. Luckily, we had excellent insurance, but otherwise our yearly household income would have been completely drained after multiple doses. Is it really necessary to pay nearly $20,000 a month to stay alive? For anyone?
You can’t put a price on life, but this is suspiciously high. It would be nice to have more medicine competitors so there would be a broader range of cancer treatments. A New Leaf employee claimed that the macrobiotic diet cures cancers, but it’s all speculation. Life would be perfect if cancer patients didn’t have to choose between re-financing their houses and living.
As a lifelong conservative, it’s strange to be defending health care reform during tough economic times, but there’s no reason why someone should be turned away from a doctor for lacking insurance. Instead of investing in completely free health-care, President Obama can strive to provide insurance for everybody. According to the same Rasmussen survey, 66% of Democrats say it is possible to insure everyone, a view shared by 33% of unaffiliated voters and 19% of Republicans.
I fully support President Obama in his pursuit to keep all U.S. citizens alive and well.
