CSotD: Reporting from the Front
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We've covered cartoonists who report from the Middle East, from Appalachia, from Congo. Now Jen Sorensen reports from her own backyard with a piece that gains its impact from just how normal and mundane her life is.
And, as she notes, unsustainable.
(Follow that link to read the rest.)
The "Open Letter To The Supreme Court" is, of course, a handy fiction. For one thing, the Supreme Court make decisions on whether a law is permitted under the Constitution, not whether it appears fair, unless its "unfairness" impinges on civil rights or amounts to "cruel and unusual punishment," and less of either of those lately.
And, for another, they've already made up their minds. As Chris Baldwin noted in the comments a few days ago, the justices make their actual decisions just after arguments. The delay is to allow them to write their opinions.
Meanwhile, the spin we've seen, not just on "Obamacare" but on the entire topic since it was (clumsily) raised at the start of the Clinton administration, is a fanciful combination of libertarian Darwinism, distortions, blatant lies and obsequious kowtowing to Big Pharma and the medical lobby.
That's what Sorensen can address, and does, admirably, because she's not down at the homeless shelter interviewing the most outrageous examples of system failure.
It's too easy to dismiss those cases because they're over there somewhere, not in our lives, not in our social circles, and we see their clothes, their grooming, their speech patterns, their lives, as "other."
For anyone eager to not allow his own life to be disrupted, their problems are readily put aside as their own fault or at least as not typical.
I've heard the social Darwinists explain that we don't need systemic reform to address issues of poverty, of poor health care, of homelessness, because that's what churches are for, and say quite sincerely that they donate to their own church and even work within its social mission to help the less fortunate.
Which is personally admirable, but, in terms of addressing the crisis, is like distributing floaties to the Titanic passengers.
So now here is Jen's story, and it's harder to dismiss, because she's a nice, clean, pleasant person who could be your ex-college roommate or your daughter-in-law or your neighbor. She fits in your life.
And her story could much more credibly be yours. It's certainly mine.
I've lived without health insurance for three years, since my last full-time employer went belly up.
There was a brief period, between the time I was cut and the time they filed for Chapter 7, when I had affordable COBRA coverage. But continuing to get coverage through your previous employer's policy assumes that your previous employer exists and has a policy.
Once the company filed for bankruptcy, that was the end of its former employees' health coverage.
Like the people in Jen's cartoon, I sought individual coverage. I didn't expect to be able to afford full coverage, the kind where you can go in for a $20 copayment at the start of an illness, or even once it has progressed beyond the start, and get some help.
I just wanted some "God forbid" coverage. The best offer I could get for that came with a $5,000 annual deductible and they wanted a little over two-thirds of my pre-tax income.
Or, to put it another way, pretty much all of my post-tax income.
"Live free or die" is not just our state motto. It's a directive from the health industry.
I couldn't figure out a way to fork over nearly all my money and still have a roof over my head and food to eat. So much for the "live free" option.
When I go to my doctor, he sometimes suggests a test or a procedure, and I remind him that I can't afford to do things that would make my life better or more comfortable. If it isn't going to actually prevent my premature death, it can't happen.
And he shakes his head and I see his frustration, because he didn't invent the system.
And he's a decent enough person that his waiting room has Sports Illustrated and Redbook, not the god damned yachting and vacation magazines other doctors offer their patients. And he doesn't decorate the place with framed god damned photos of his last god damned trip to Fiji like other doctors do.
I like him.
But there's not much he can do for me, aside from caring.
Look: We're the only people who live like this, with cars and television and grocery stores but no decent system of health coverage. If you believe in "American exceptionalism," well, there's an example of it, and one that shames us.
All of us.
Without exception.
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