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It’s Monday, and normally Mondays have been (accidentally or on purpose? you decide!) devoted toward writing-related chatter for quite a while now. Further, I have a post cooking that talks about something John Hornor asked about, which is: structure.
Except, last night a big crazy imperfect thing happened in this country.
Health Care Reform — stuck with arrows, extremities burned off, drooling and gibbering — came stumbling through the door before collapsing on our floor and saying something triumphant before finally laying down for a sweet, sweet nap.
So, seems like maybe I should talk about that instead.
Warning: Awooga, Awooga, Awooga
I’m not particularly interested in serious debate on this subject at this point. Yes, if you’re truly incensed, I won’t stop you from sounding off. But as you’ll read, I have particularly personal feelings surrounding this whole “health care reform” thing, and that means I’m not really up for batting it back and forth. Especially since what’s done is now done.
So, let the klaxons sound.
Also: “klaxon” sounds like “Zaxxon.”
Man, I used to love that game, even though I let it brutally molest me whenever I played it.
So, It’s Like This
You probably already know all this, but dangit, it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.
My father died a couple-and-a-half years ago, and he died too early because health care ultimately failed him. He was a guy who had a good job and did fine financially, but then retired early (a few years too early for Medicare) and learned that a pre-existing condition (high blood pressure) was going to prevent him from getting affordable health care.
So, he figured he’d wait. Medicare was around the corner.
Prostate cancer beat Medicare to the punch, unfortunately. Dad knew something was wrong, but figured on putting it off because he feared losing anything he’d saved for retirement (no, this was not a wise choice in retrospect, but it’s a choice you can understand someone making). By the time he realized he had cancer, it had advanced to a less curable stage.
But even there, it was (reportedly) still treatable.
That was in… I dunno, July, maybe. And he was gone by December.
The level of treatment received ping-ponged between “serviceable” and “circus-like,” and he was first put on meds and then put in surgery and then put in the ground. He was often confused about what the treatment was or why they had chosen that particular treatment, and during his last couple weeks in the hospital the health care he received was laughable. A host of doctors visited him, and none of them seemed to communicate to one another, and when they chose to communicate information to him it was always right after they beefed him up with morphine — so, he never really understood or recalled the information given. Vital information; life or death stuff, by the way.
I remember how a tray of some… fluid from his body (not sure what it was, bloody urine, maybe, or some kind of red discharge drainage) sat by the window of his hospital bed for a while. Nobody would attend to that collection of fluid. Which was, in theory, hazardous — I mean, it’s a bodily fluid. Finally a nurse came along, appalled, and disposed of it, hours later.
By the time he died, he’d spent weeks in the hospital, and that was at the end of a six-month journey of various treatment options. Needless to say, the medical bills were mighty.
So, It’s Like This, Part II
My mother’s on Medicare, and it’s mostly a Byzantine tangle of inscrutable laws. To get a doctor’s appointment, for instance, you have to behead an ibex in the name of Horus, and then measure a dram of your saliva versus a dram of your soul and then submit to a full body scan by jackal-headed Anubis. That’s just to get in the door.
In all seriousness, she tells stories of the kinds of things she has to do just to get Medicare working for her, and it’d be laughable if it wasn’t, y’know, my mother we’re talking about. She’s fallen into the doughnut hole. She had to get supplemental insurance to “complement” her Medicare, but in doing so, now the two insurances compete and each wants to foist responsibility off on the other. Not long ago she had to get cataract surgery and the battle between who was covering what and who wasn’t covering shit was head-spinning. (Guess what got covered? If you picked, “Hey, lady, please spend a couple thousand dollars of your own money,” then you get a kewpie. Does anyone even say “kewpie” anymore?)
What I’m Saying Is…
…I’m happy that health care reform actually made it as far as it did.
For one, while I don’t have the magical power to pluck the threads of “alternate history” timelines and scrutinize them, I suspect that these health care measures would’ve given my father a better shot — or, at least, some better choices. The pre-existing coverage thing helped him make a bad choice, and further, the fact that one is now required to buy health insurance would’ve demanded that such a bad choice was not an option. (I once opposed this, by the way, the “you better get yourself some dang health care” provision — except, looking at how we make people buy car insurance, and seeing how my health-care-industry wife points out that people without such insurance are a major drag on the system, I now am behind it.)
With my mother, you might think, “Yes, but government failed her, so fuck the government.” Except, I don’t think that level of cynicism is productive (tempting though it may be). Medicare was broken, so I’d rather someone go and try to fix it instead of just scrapping it. Closing up the doughnut hole is a good start (with a credit this year to help). Hopefully strengthening Medicare will strengthen the care she can and will receive. I choose optimism, here. The government can do some things right, after all.
It Ain’t Perfect
The reform isn’t perfect, and it clumsily staggered its way into reality, but blah-blah-blah, can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I’m happy that health care made it this far. I’m happy that the time for all this rumor-mongering and misinformation is done (or, if not done, then at least made useless). I’m pleased that the Democrats grew a pair and actually came together and did something, an act that was more like herding cats than anybody perhaps realized.
Say what you want, and be cynical if it suits you, but it feels to me that this is an authentic step to tighten a sloppy bureaucracy and get health care to people who need it.
So, three cheers to all that.
About The Author
ChuckWendig
Chuck Wendig is equal parts novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He is the author of the novels DOUBLE DEAD, BLACKBIRDS, and MOCKINGBIRD. In addition, he's got a metric boatload of writing-related e-books available, including the popular 500 WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with wife, dog, and newborn progeny.
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20 Responses and Counting...
I get the feeling that most republicans I know were sort of hoping that this would fail in favor of some kind of “Horcrux” health-care plan. I think most of them were quite willing to murder a few people in support of this method. Perhaps the very poor or needy could have worked out a deal whereby *being* a Horcrux would result in some kind of monetary gain?
I’m not thrilled with it, but it seems to be the best way to get us to a new starting point. There’s a good chance that this Bill is only the beginning of real reform and will pave the way for further modifications to the system. You have to tip over that first domino to get the rest to fall. It’s a great start.
Last night I was watching live feeds from Washington with lots of that hopey, changey stuff. I’ve mentioned it here before, but to recap – I left the States for Canada when the wife got pregnant. I wanted my children to have health care, and not worry about it. Given that both the boys ended up having ASD, this was a really good idea.
I would love to come home… I miss the States, even though I love Canada. Like Kevin Smith said, Canada is the girl next door, and who doesn’t want to fuck the girl next door? But I want to come home at some point… I just can’t responsibly do so until I either have the health care for my children independently, or I can be sure the new reform will be sure my boys will get the care they need.
So, I am very pleased that the reform passed. It is not as good as the original, and I miss the public option, but this is a step in the right direction. Finally, health care can join our police, firefighters, judiciary, military, libraries, traffic department, park services, schools, and countless other evil socialist agencies in America.
I respect you, Chuck, so just like yesterday, I’m not going to go off on my normal froth about health care. Suffice to say this: the bill, despite a few iffy provisos (imo), is a good step towards making me feel a lot more comfortable about moving back to the US in the next few years. Two kids with autism? A third child who may or may not have some sort of disorder like her brothers do? A husband with a pulmonary embolism in his medical history? Me, diagnosed years ago with clinical depression and asthma? Yeah, our chances of an affordable family policy that wouldn’t sodomize us was next to zilch.
Now? This is a good first step. A good first step. If the lunatic fringe would actually educate themselves and stop trying (and succeeding) to scare the shit out of otherwise decent, normally levelheaded people with their fearmongering, their end-of-days proselytizing and their blatant and deliberate misrepresentation of the facts, perhaps more steps can be taken to ensure America really does remain land of the free, home of the brave, with apple pie and baseball and all that jazz.
I’m actually amazed at how many people see goblins in this bill — I mean, America-ending goblins, a full-on *goblin war.*
I just don’t get it.
We live in a country where nobody peeps up about the treatment our soldiers get, about how we wantonly engage in wars (death), but when it comes time toward trying to stave off national bankruptcy and give people reasonable health care (life), everybody shits the bed.
– c.
Chuck. Read this. It explains everything.
http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo
Paul:
A great link. I quoted this earlier (reblog) at tumblr:
http://terribleminds.tumblr.com/post/465410295/no-illusions-please-this-bill-will-not-be
– c.
Oh sweet. Didn’t realize you had a tumblr.
@Paul – That was a great link. I really like what that guy had to say, and with how up in arms the movement has been over the past two years, I have rarely been able to say that about what I’ve read from most conservatives. That is the kind of guy I could have a conversation with.
Let me be fair here – I could have a conversation that didn’t end in threats with most conservatives. It really is primarily the media that is whipping up the frenzy, and no less so on the liberal side. MSNBC is trying to be the Little Fox-News that Could, but when you have Maddow vs Beck, it seems obvious to me which one you’d listen to (I tend to go with “less crazy” every time). I don’t know if any of you caught the interview Beck did with former Congressman Eric Massa (youtube link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HMCthFdX0c ) but his reaction to a fallen politician taking responsibility for his own actions and presenting an respectable, non-violent demeanor is to say he’s wasted America’s time. If it isn’t crazy, it isn’t worth watching.
Oh media, you saucy bitch.
No, the bill’s definitely not perfect, and I dare anybody (anybody!) to say it is.
But, while I watched the Democrats and thought, “well, this is ugly, but at least things won’t be as bad as they have been,” I watched the Republicans and thought, “what frothy multiverse manifold did they ride in on?” I mean, I’m all for hyperbole in the service of rhetoric, but at least make it understandable. Hyperbole should still stay somewhat connected to rationality and reality so that we have a clue what they actually mean. That fell by the wayside. So now we get what we get, and I feel a little bit better about the next time I go unemployed or self-employed, unlike the last three times when I was just screwed.
So as I look at my father-in-law and my mother-in-law, who’ve worked hard and suffered health problems much earlier than anybody would have expected, I only wish this (or something resembling it, because I’m no policy expert) had passed earlier. Maybe then I wouldn’t be praying that my wife’s dad makes it to 60, or that her mom can at least see all her grandkids start kindergarten. As it stands, that’s fairly unlikely.
Just FYI: Someone on Reddit.com found a great source that outlines exactly what this Bill covers and when. It’s a nice read.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1914020220100319
Paul:
That might be the most comprehensive step-by-step I’ve seen. Nicely linked.
– c.
The way I see it, it does not matter one bit what’s in this health care bill, because it’s going to change dramatically over the next ten years. The biggest obstacle to improving health care has always been the crowd who insisted (despite mounting evidence) that we do nothing because we already had the best possible health care.
As a result of this bill, right now almost nobody thinks we have the best health care possible. Some people say it went in the wrong direction, some say it didn’t go far enough in the right direction, some people parade around holding up misspelled signs and shouting racial slurs. It got us out of a complacent rut, and that’s a good thing. The good ideas will stick around, the bad ideas will get changed or swept under the rug.
Most importantly, it sets precedent. That’s awesome.
Also, this morning, we passed a sweeping student loan bill. It’s going to save us over 60 billion in federal subsidy, most of those savings are going right back to needy students in the form of pell grants.
I’m excited. This seeks to give the administration back its momentum.
Something David just said is really important:
“This seeks to give the administration back its momentum.”
Since the November mid-terms especially, the Democrats have been faltering… and I honestly wouldn’t trust them to be able to find their assholes with both hands, even while sitting on those hands. I think, especially in the face of the teabaggers, there has been a real feeling of “how will we fuck this up” in the current administration, but with this and the student loan thing pushing hopefully that ball will begin rolling and more progress can be made. I don’t understand why there is a problem with being progressive among conservatives, but that is exactly what the U.S. needs – to move out of the ignorance and knee-jerkmanship of the last century and move into something more proactive.
You say you don’t get it. I respond with Wizard’s First Rule.
No one peeps up about veterans because everyone is told that these people are defending freedoms, home and state. And America surely wouldn’t let its heroes, its defenders, suffer. That’d be wrong and hypocritical and everything America stands against.
No one peeps up about warmongering because a) Iraq has WMDs, b) they’re succoring terrorists, c) they hate America for some unfathomable reason and want to destroy you.
Politicians and lobbyists spin out fantastic yarns filled with misplaced patriotism and wanton fearmongering, using so-called reputable vehicles like Fox News and all its associated “trusted voices” (and MSNBC and their “trusted voices”, if I’m being totally impartial) to convince Joe Home Viewer that half the stuff that would repulse and appall most folks normally is apple pie and ice cream, while the stuff that’s actually not that bad at all is going to come with fangs and razorblades for your money, your children and your freedoms in the middle of the night.
Basically, it all boils down to Wizard’s First Rule, Chuck. That’s how I explain it.
@Rick: Which elections? The November mid-terms will occur this coming autumn.
Your story made me cry with sadness and with rage. I know that there has been a lot of bad publicity in the USA about the NHS but I cannot believe that people in the 21st century in the USa have put up withthis system for so long.
I feel so fortunate; I get free prescriptions for all my medical needs, I never have to think about paying for a doctor, if I become seriously ill I will be treated at my new local hospital or flown by helicopter to Glasgow if it’s an emergency.
My parents are both in there 70s and receive first class care. My father has had prostrate problems for the past 20 years and gets regular treatment and check-ups. He’s had key-hole surgery on his knee and every test known to man to try to find out why he feels exhausted (well he is 79!) and they both receive constant care and check-ups for high blood pressure. And for all of this…they never pay a penny.
We are seriously lucky and I hope these reforms bring this wonderful service closer for you.
Sorry, not midterms – I was thinking of the gubernatorial races and the Massachusetts vacancy run-off after Sen. Kennedy died.
I am happy too! While not perfect, this is a step in the right direction.