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Nat'l healthcare humane
Picture a young, single mother with a child. Fresh from divorce, the mother spends her time attempting to find employment that will provide for her and her child’s needs. She finally receives that much-needed interview and is hired. But the job, which only pays slightly over minimum wage, does not provide a benefits plan. She is now just over the poverty line and eligible for Medi-Cal but doesn’t make enough to pay for her own plan. The mother begins to feels run down and ill, but does not go to the doctor, as she cannot afford the cost. This rundown feeling leads to weeks of fevers and respiratory problems, all the while trying not to miss work as she is very new at the position and is very much afraid of losing that necessary job. The mother works hard every day for her and her child’s welfare. Being plagued by sickness proves too much for her small frame and she collapses at work. She is taken to the hospital and recovers. Soon after that, she gets the bill, which on her thirty-cent over minimum wage salary is like taking on a small car payment. As a someone who only has enough for her and her child’s immediate needs, this bill is a crippling blow and now she has no idea what to do. Just a fairy tale? I could think of one mother—my mother—who could verify the truth of this story with such vigor that you might find yourself lobbying for nationalized health care. Nationalized health care is a system of providing free treatment for those who do not have their own benefit plan. This would allow all who wanted to be treated an opportunity to see a doctor. And for those in emergency situations like that described above, they would receive attention without a massive bill afterward. What would this policy mean in the United States? It would mean renovating several questionable issues in America today. Health care costs would drop considerably for those who subscribe to an HMO. This would make treatments more affordable as the HMO’s gravitate toward making themselves competitive with a free nationalized health care system. Who isn’t in favor of more affordable health care for those who can pay for it? Everyone deserves health care. Is there really a person alive who would deny a sick single mother a doctor’s appointment? Let’s hope not, I shudder to consider a person who has such little concern for a person in such a need, the same person who would let my mother perish. Please, let me have just one reasonable motive for not affording a person care that needs it. Should class and circumstance make this determination? If we allowed the bourgeoisie to determine every concession shared by lower financial groups, we would not have the freedom we do. Someone not having money for something has never stopped us from rendering them aid if it was a worthwhile project, just look at the FAFSA. Money should not deter opportunities any more than race or sex should. Some say that such a health care system is not workable. I say that if we can find eighty billion to finance nation building, we can make such a system work in America, for much less I am sure. — This columnist can be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu |
