CSotD: Another battlefield in the War on the Poor
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Jeff Stahler's cartoon would be funny if it weren't so sad, scary and infuriating. In my lifetime, America has gone from "The War on Poverty" to "The War on the Poor," and health care is one of the main battlegrounds.
Health care matters on a number of levels, including highly pragmatic ones, which is probably why there are so few developed nations in the world that don't assume it to be a basic need that, whatever the up-front cost, has to be provided.
The arguments are both obvious and familiar:
"A stitch in time saves nine," and providing regular care for small health issues avoids providing massive care when those things get out of hand, whether we're talking about handing out some antibiotics rather than hospitalizing an advanced case of pneumonia or scraping off a few pre-cancerous skin cells rather than investing in major surgery and chemo.
And providing pre-natal and well-baby care builds a healthy, productive workforce, lowers education costs and creates all sorts of other avoided costs that are impossible to pin down because how do you count the costs of a fire that didn't break out or an automobile accident that was prevented?
I'll skip the rest of the obvious arguments, but I will refer you to Jen Sorensen's latest, which deals with the Missouri law that went beyond refusing to set up its own program under the Affordable Care Act, and outlaws any cooperation with the federal law.
According to this NYTimes article, that has left Missouri's health care professionals forbidden to provide information to people on the options available under the ACA.
A couple of things:
1. Here's where you can get information on ACA plans, though it's a little vague in places and won't fully launch until October. But it's a valuable resource now and will increase in value as they fill in the details.
2. The Missouri restrictions were approved by referendum, part of a troubling pattern of tyranny of the majority. The period of prosperity we enjoyed after World War II included a generosity of spirit and perhaps a little post-Dachau momentum in which the fact that Alabama and Mississippi wanted to invoke majority rule to keep Jim Crow in place was seen as shameful.
The argument of "majority rule" remains in strict opposition to the concept of "civil rights," but somehow we've lost the sense of shame.
3. The fact that I can provide a link to the information does not absolve Missouri or other obstructionists from the guilt of failure to inform. It's easy for people to find the information if they know where to look. It's generally the people who don't know where to look who need the information more.
This was true of voter registration in the Jim Crow days and it's true of health care information now.
4. This entire "screw'em" attitude is lovely in theory, but I wonder how many actual examples a person with a shred of human decency could encounter before their better instincts kicked in.
There may be a contradiction between my advocacy of voter registration and my condemnation of letting heartless ignoramuses vote on matters like providing food, health care and education to children, but there's a much greater contradiction between those who claim to be Christian and yet would begrudge aid to the poor, and still more between those who claim to value life and yet would refuse prenatal and well-baby care to the least among these.
However, people may be easily led by the nose, but I think their hearts are mostly in the right place. The shame is less on them than on the manipulators who exploit their fear and sense of alienation.
As for the "My Country Right Or Wrong" zealots, they should ponder why people travel to Canada for prescriptions. They would quickly learn that medical care on all levels is more expensive in the United States, starting with doctors' earnings, but also, yes, in the cost of prescriptions.
Taxes are higher in those other countries, true, but, at least when it comes to medical care, they more than get that investment back.
All of which Dan Piraro boils down to a simple proposition:
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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