Let me get a few things clear before I start on this particular rant today. First off, for the most part, I think that the government should stay out of the private lives of people. When people are putting themselves or others at risk, then they have an obligation to step in and care for that person until they can either care for themselves or someone steps forward to care for them. Secondly, it is very clear that we as a society have failed big time on taking care of our neighbors. 100 years ago, no one would have thought twice about bringing an injured person in to their home and either treating them as best they knew how, or giving them shelter until medical help could arrive. I still saw a lot of that when I lived out west. Of course, when your nearest neighbor is 50 miles down the road and medical care even farther, one did what one had to do because, no matter your religious affiliations, it was just the decent, human thing to do.
Rant starts in 3...2...1
I am depressed. Not in the "oh, I'm feeling a bit blue today"...I'm talking the chronic, I need mild drugs to alleviate the worst symptoms type depression. Some of you who have been following this blog will remember my permanent layoff notice. You know, the one that I got on a Saturday telling me all my medical benefits would be ending on Sunday. Yeah...that one. This gave me zero time to call my doctor and get any of my medication renewed. Not that it really mattered, there wasn't any money to buy the prescription anyways but it would have been nice to have had that option.
Enter the evil socialized medicine. I would have been able to still go to a doctor and not only get another checkup but to obtain needed prescriptions too. So would all of my former co-workers, many of whom didn't have health insurance anyways due to the cost of it through our company. Let's not kid ourselves here...people who get paid 1.5X minimum wage still can't afford health coverage for themselves, let alone their family members.
For those of you who don't know my history, I spent 4 years living in Germany and have traveled to countries all over Europe that have some form of socialized medicine. Here is something you hardly EVER saw in the streets of those countries and that would be people who are mentally ill and homeless, families who have been forced out of their homes due to exorbitantly high medical expenses from diseases like cancer. How can we as a society say that THAT is not our problem? since when did we stop caring for our fellow man in every way shape and form? Since when did we start turning a blind eye to the suffering of people around us? Granted, many of us are not in extreme circumstances but more and more of us aren't doing that well either.
Socialized medicine allows people that need healthcare to get it. Period. We are concerned about corporations being "healthy" and bail them out time after time but we don't care about the humans that WORK in those corporations. If you believe that all life is sacred, then why not help sick people get the medical care they need to stay alive or even healthy so that they can go to work and support their families and get employer provided healthcare? Here's the scam for you too folks...people will exaggerate or even fake illnesses so that they can get Medicaid. Would they need to do that if we treated them so that they could go back to work even if their job was low paying?
Our country is crippled in so many ways and while some of its financial, much of it is spiritual, emotional and mental. We've lost our heart for our fellow human beings, we no longer care about doing the right thing for our fellow man and even worse, we actively fight against those that want to help others.
I've seen how offering medical care for everyone regardless of their means to pay can lift up a country and give its citizens opportunities to get healthy, stay healthy and better still, create a country that understands that its citizens are special, they matter and that they will do the right thing to help them.
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