Obama rally we attended in Fort Lauderdale, campaign 2008
We recently posted a synchronicity about what often happens as death nears for a loved one. I think many of us have been or are in similar situations with parents and loved ones. So Keith Olbermann’s special comment on the evening of February 24 on Countdown really hit home for me and seems strangely synchronous in terms of timing.
I realize there are people who dislike Olbermann for political reasons, who think universal health care is a “socialist agenda.” But I’ve been where Olbermann is now – not with just one parent, but both parents. I know what it’s like to stare down that long, dark tunnel where decisions have to be made about end of life care for a parent or other loved one. When that pending death is staring you in the face, you are utterly and completely powerless. You want to do what is best for the person you love, but what is the best?
Both of my parents had living wills that stipulated no extraordinary measures should be taken to prolong their lives. It sounds great on paper, but when that point is actually reached, all kinds of doubts pour through you. And at some level, you know you are seeing your own mortality, the end of your time on the planet, so all kinds of issues surface about what you believe about life after death.
We were fortunate. Both of my parents had Medicare and private insurance. But neither covered the two years that my mother spent in an Alzheimer’s facility or that my father spent in an assisted care facility. That was paid for with money my dad had saved for the 60 plus years of his working life. It wasn’t cheap and the cost became a constant, nagging voice at the backs of our minds: what will we do when the money runs out? My sister and I both had jobs, families, children, and college expenses looming for them in the near future. There was no way we could afford to cover the kinds of expenses that nursing homes and Alzheimer’s units demand. I have no idea what we would have done if my parents had not had Medicare and private insurance. In all likelihood, we would be bankrupt.
So when you watch this emotional video, think about the people in congress who have great federal insurance, paid for by you and me, the ones who stand up in front of TV cameras and declare that a public option is off the table. Think about the senators and members of congress with major health problems who don’t have to worry about what if the money runs out or that they might be denied care by their insurance companies.
And think about how we are the only industrialized nation without universal health care. And when your insurance company tells you that oops, so sorry, your daughter’s rape is a pre-existing condition, your wife’s diabetes is a pre-existing condition, that the life-saving drug you need isn’t included in your plan, realize that you have come face to face with the real death panels.
If you voted for Obama, as I did, think about his campaign mantra about change – yes, we can – and know that he has failed. Perhaps he lacks the courage to take on the insurance industry. Or maybe he, like so many politicians on the left, right and in between simply fell into the trap of expediency once he was in office.But it seems that we, as a people, as a nation, should be able to do better than this.
Yet, when I watched portions of the health care summit on 2/25, I felt sad, discouraged, and then enraged. The arguments were pretty much the same ones that were put forth against social security and Medicare. Only the faces of the obstructionists have changed.
It all seems to boil down to class wars. How ridiculous is that? In the 21st century, we’re still embroiled in the battle of us against them, the rich against the poor, the elitists against everyone else, the corporations against the ordinary American. One Democrat said that the insurance industry owns the Republicans. But the truth is that the insurance companies – entities that produce nothing, that contribute nothing but heartache, that create nothing, that are merely middle men who get rich off the rest of us – own congress. They and all their corporate buddies run the country. There are eight lobbyists for every member of congress. Their message: The government is taking over our lives, taking away personal freedom. Oh, really.
So when your loved one is staring down that long, black tunnel, I hope that you can make the right choices, from the heart, and that synchronicity provides guidance along the way.
But do any of these politicians ever experience synchronicity, Teapot?
Thanks for posting, totally agree. May Synchronicity save us all!
I love that quote by Churchill Vanessa.
A lot of healthcare problems are also because of lawyers and our lawsuit mentality.
I thought it was so fascinating when a hospital (I can't remember where) had physicians/surgeons apologize if a mistake happened and they found they had far fewer people suing them.
There was more to it but I can't remember all of it.
One thing that helps out with the stress though is meditation and deep breathing which then helps with your health.
Deep breath………………….
Great quote, Gypsy. I saw a cool one yesterday by Churchill: "If you're going through hell, keep going." 🙂
Western health care is such a disaster. It's not just the cost, but the tendency to treat symptoms rather than discovering and treating root causes… or embracing a healthy life in the first place, like Trish said. Have you noticed how the side effects of some medicines are sometimes worse than the symptoms they're treating? Those symptoms are our bodies telling us something's wrong—yet we're taught to take pills so we can keep mistreating ourselves with processed foods and unhealthy lifestyles. We need to remember how to "hear" our bodies.
This was so well said! Seriously, you nailed it!
touche' on the last comment, macgregors – and right on point! which is why after being more diligent i am taking 2-3 less medications – now, where's my apple!
The one things that's been left out of this discussion is that the best way to cut health care costs is to stay healthy and avoid doctors and hospitals altogether.
If everyone watched their diet, exercised and avoided substance abuse, we could have universal health care, healthier, happier people.
Of course the insurance companies, who profit through our unhealthy activities, would have to sell car and home owners insurance.
Powerful post and video.
Things are always blackest before the dawn.
I know very little about the actual details of this reform, but felt it's been getting worse for some time. I personally feel it needs to be totally scrapped and a new objective created. What has been built through secrets and greed for decades is not easy to topple.
Great stuff, Gypsy! Now here's my confession. Rob and I haven't had insurance for 20 years. Megan was covered under a Florida program until she turned 19.
We realized years ago that we were paying out thousands a year for insurance and still paying through the nose when we went to doctors. So we dropped our insurance (which is incredibly expensive if you're self-employed) and saved the money. When we go to docs now – which is rare – we pay cash. That works as long as neither of us has a catastrophic illness. Then all bets are off.
oh, and remember the wolfgang pauli quote "'This isn't right. This isn't even wrong." ? well, THIS isn't right and it's really wrong! ok, i think i may be done now 🙂
or not –
so true so true this post – and i could add multiple stories of my own, those of my son who nearly died as a result of medical ineptness and then had no where to go but back to the same inept physicians/hospital who originally sent him to death's door, a medical teaching hospital, because he was uninsured and no other hospital would admit him and he would have died anyway – or my sister's stories one after the other of being moved to this facility or that one because the insurance she had only paid for "x" number of days – etc etc – stories all the same – still – as far as i'm concerned – and years ago it became a banner statement of mine, that the insurance industry rules the world today – my physician doesn't have the last say-so about what prescription medication i take, my physician doesn't get to decide on a health care plan based upon medical need for me, but rather upon the dictates of my personal insurance for which i pay dearly – and lest i digress as i am prone to do, the bottom line is "i don't want to have to make a trip over to the big white house in person but i can – and am almost ready to!" i would love to see obama stand up, speak up and act out and be the obama i voted for! enough is enough is enough! it's just enough! now!
Toumai and Mike – great to get your perspectives on universal health care in Canada and England!
Ditto, Natalie.
Sansego – it's difficult to understand people who vote against their own self-interests. Total paradox to me!
Health care for all, I say.
Its another example of conservative "low information voters" going against a solution that would actually improve their lives. I just don't get how easily brainwashed a core segment of our country is, to support policies that corporations favor at the expense of their own personal benefit. Using the same old McCarthy anti-communism hysteria in this debate is just bizarre to me. There's, like, only three communist countries in the world today…and they're afraid that universal health care will make us into a communist country?!?
I agree completely, Mike. Health care should be a right, not a privilege.
Our National Health Service here in the UK isn't perfect – it's probably impossible to make it so – but it does ensure that everyone has whatever medical care they need, whenever they need it, no matter what their financial situation. Surely this is a basic human right.
Of course there are difficulties and lots of expense with a National Health System. It becomes a bit of a monster to control, but it's an essential monster. Everyone should be able to have equal treatment without worry adding to their illness.
Thanks for posting your story, Vicki. Yes, the whole broken system is scary.
Thank you for this post and video, I had not seen it before and it is absolutely true.
We went through similar things with my Father in Law who was paralyzed from the neck down and in a nursing home for 6 years.
We were able to get him into a wonderful nursing home and keep him there ONLY because my husband and I could guarantee payments. It made me sick, angry and literally cry when his roommate was "discharged" to a different facility due to being unable to continue payments(his insurance would only cover care for a certain amount of time).
The healthcare system is scary and something needs to be done.
My father in law passed on in 2008 and we have no regrets yet I doubt others, as with his roommates family,can say the same and that is wrong.
Very, very sad.
People who are against universal health care fear that by helping others the quality of their own health care will go down. A similar argument was made in the 1960s when there was pressure to end segregation and provide civil rights to all Americans.
Those who favor making health care a right for everyone believe that we raise our own standards of humanity by doing so, as we did by passing civil rights legislation and ending legal discrimination. In other words, by helping others, we help ourselves.