Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings

I started this blog to vent my feelings, and guess what? Today I am venting!!!!

I can't believe the health care debate right now. I won't claim the plans put forward are that great but some of the things being discussed have no relevance in my opinion. All I want is a mature discussion on what this country is going to do about health care. It is a viable question. Costs are going up, a lot of employers are no longer offering it as a benefit, and a lot of us are to young and/or healthy for medicare/medicaid.
So what do I hear? Don't have kids if you can't afford them. Get a better education ergo better job. If we have government run health care, people will die from lack of care. The USA has the best health care in the world so why mess with it?
Who is having this discussion? Crack smokers? Okay, maybe that is a little unfair to label EVERYONE a crack smoker but honestly, who's healthcare are they talking about? Numerous studies show that the USA does not have the top healthcare in the world. Not one plan put forward includes death squads. But the real clincher for me is the "don't have kids/find a better employer argument.
Let me tell you a story.
When I was in high school, we were told that a good job was one that offered benefits. Hence don't work fast-food/be a gas-jockey/work retail. Go to college, get an education, and get a good job-and a good job was one that had benefits.
So, my husband and I went to college. We got good jobs. His was with the family business, but it had the benefits so it fit the criteria. My job asked us to pay for part of our health care. Okay, so not so good but economy sank and we were lucky to have jobs so it still seemed good.
I got fired.
I got a part-time job. Okay, those never come with benefits, but it was great for raising a family so I took it. Plus, my husband had benefits-I married a man with a "good" job. And after 9 months of looking, I was happy to have a job again.
1 part-time job, 1 full-time job with health benefits.
We had a kid.
We lost employer paid health care.
So now, we are paying for the family, but Nick is covered. Okay, we can absorb that. It isn't pretty but by cutting back on extras, we managed. Besides, no one promised a free ride and we knew that this was being a grown-up.
We go for kid number 2.
We lose all employer based health care.
So where in the argument should we have done something different? I guess we did choose to have kids AND we choose not to consult our crystal ball to see into the future but now we have 2 kids and no employer based health care. I guess we both could have chosen different careers, degrees, etc. but we followed through with dogma we were fed in high school-we got degrees and we got good jobs. The good jobs turned bad while we were there though so now what? With 2 kids and a mortgage, who just walks out and assumes they can find a good job?
It could be worse-I am not complaining about "how bad we have it" and I know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the same boat as us.
I get pissed, because after all is said and done, some asshole says that people like me feel we are entitled to health care. As I keep hearing, health care isn't a right, it is earned.
Know what I want to say to that? F*** You. (Okay, even in my blog I have a hard time with using the F*** word! Girl Scout runs strong in me!)
F*** You F*** You F*** YOU!!!!!
And then when we talk about medicare/medicaid, we don't dare touch those because THOSE people need it. So I guess what that means is that some of us are entitled but some of us aren't?
And you want to know the truth? After all the brou-ha-ha from the conservatives about the sancitity of life and how precious it is, yeah, I feel entitled. I feel like if I get sick, I should be able to go to the doctor without worrying about how much it will cost me. I want to go to the doctor's without worrying if this will cause my insurance to cancel me for being "sickly". I want to be able to get the preventative care the health community says I should have so I can live a long life and be there for my children-hopefuly my grandchildren. And dammit, I want the health care I was promised if I worked hard and got a good job. Or at least chose a partner who had a good job so we could work together and not be a drain on society.
Billy Joel sang a song called "Allentown" in the 1980's. It was about the mining industry in Pennsylvania, but it rings true today as well. We were promised a good job if we did the right thing; we did the right thing and we got screwed. It sucks that over 2 decades later, we are singing the same damn tune.