As everyone has heard by now, Health Care Reform has taken center stage in the media. It would seem that our country is divided; no surprise there! However, this is an extremely important subject and we could be headed down a road that we will later regret. It seems to me that there has to be a less complicated way to get all Americans insured!
Lets look at the facts:
Currently, in the United States, there are approximately 57 - 60 Million UN-Insured citizens. Then we must factor in the 7 million more Americans that are expected to lose their insurance before the year 2010. Obviously, we have a problem! Yet, I try to rationalize this issue and I keep coming back to the same two questions:
1)Why do we Americans allow our government to waste money?
2)Why do we give prisoners who are serving life terms more consideration than we give to hard working Americans who contribute to this society on a daily basis?
Lets face it... there are an estimated 2.3 million inmates in U.S. prisons, and while they are there serving their time they are given free medical care, which includes vision and dental. Of those 2.3 million inmates 140,610 are "Lifer's", which means they will never get out! And who pays for that? We do!
I'm trying to make sense of the fact that prisoners are treated better in this country than our working middle class. And what happens when an uninsured American has a medical emergency or life threatening illness? They must scrape up the money to pay as they go, or they do without the care that they need. Oh, and lets not forget all those Americans who find themselves homeless or filing bankruptcy all because of an unexpected medical disaster!
If you're an American and you don't have medical insurance you may find yourself asking family, friends, and sometimes strangers to loan or give you money to help pay medical bills. So, if that's what we put our contributing members of society through, then why not put inmates through the same process? If they become ill then why can't they do without the care that they need? Or...if you don't like that idea then how about we suggest to them that they call family, friends and even ask strangers to help them out?
I would imagine there are a great number of people that would say "That's inhumane!" Yet those same caring individuals don't realize that their own next door neighbor is suffering that same inhumanity! And they didn't kill anyone or drive drunk for the 25th time. They didn't rob someone at gun point, or rape a young child.
It's our tax dollars at work here! If it were up to me we would take care of those that are trying to take care of themselves. The money that we, as a country waste is astronomical! It's time we realize the state of our Union and demand justice for all!
Photo published in "LIFE"
Copyright 2009
Eastcreek Photography
