You may remember Donna Smith from Michael Moore’s SICKO. Tired of waiting for someone else to do something, she has founded American Patients for Universal Health Care. She is now involved in more public debates, which has prompted this email. I pass this along with her permission.
Gotta ask and not being dumb here — I just truly do not understand.
I am called to task for not using enough statistics and facts when I write about the need for health care reform.
But no one answers me when I ask why is it OK for 50 Americans to die every day (many more than are dying in Iraq) and a total of 18,000 to die every year without access to affordable health care in this nation? That fact, that statistic, comes from the U.S. government and does not include those who may be underinsured. The actual numbers of dead due to health care system issues are probably much higher, but what of the 50? Why is that allowed?
As we all banter about what is a real intellectual argument and what fails to meet that test, someone is dying who just needed some care — and that care was withheld due to money issues. Some argue that it has always been and will always be that the rich in rich areas get better facilit ies and better programs than the poor. But this crisis isn’t just like that. It isn’t like not having the best library or the best local swimming pool — it is like mom dying in the bedroom with a breast cancer metastasized after she had no way to access available treatment. It is like a 9/11 rescue worker left to gasp for air, like slowly drowning in a sea full of lifeboats meant only for the privileged.
This year, the American Cancer Society has made a stunning shift in its advertising spending. Commercials that used to teach people about early warning signs for cancer and such will be given up for commercials that show real cancer victims — not actors — who are suffering without adequate treatment. The ACS says that for all of their research and educational strides, that unless the U.S. deals with the crisis of the uninsured and the underinsured, all that progress is virtually wiped out statistically. Medical progress trumped by the broken system. Why is that not statistically significant in this argument?
I am growing more impatient about the stats that really matter. The stats represent real people suffering and dying — and not just the expendables — real people who were contributors to our society in many ways. What might those 18,000 people have accomplished this year? How much in taxes would they have paid? How did we explain their deaths away? And how do we placate ourselves with plans for action way down some future path?
It is insane. It hurts just to touch the keys to write this.
