U.S.A., 2007. It was the best of nations. It was the worst of nations. In what was definitely not the best of its times – not for its healthcare system. What is difficult to impossible for individuals is merely tough but possible-through-persistence for a tidal wave of us. To get all the droplets of that tidal wave together, we have to start a lot of conversations.
This is a very personal tale of my discussions about the U.S. healthcare system with two very smart, very critically thinking professional women in their 50’s who happen to be good friends. Voter #1 is a politically conservative entrepreneur, who has managed her business both profitably and ethically for nearly 20 years, always providing her employees decent health insurance. Voter #2 is a liberal Midwestern “good girl” who has always worked for her living, for companies large and small; she has a health condition protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and takes pride in her work productivity and professionalism despite her daily battle with discomfort (which she refuses to call “pain” unless it really knocks her out.)
I had expected to have two very different conversations with V1 and V2, given their intrinsic differences. I knew I had to approach each differently, and then be nimble to field any creative arguments they might come up with. But really, I expected my conservative friend to put forth the standard “socialized medicine” scare blather, against which I had my “well, let’s run a spreadsheet on the real numbers and just see” argument prepared. I hoped my liberal friend, who has appealed her share of insurance medical claims rejections and can do quite the impressive rant on the Evil Empire of Insurance of Big Pharma, to just ask where she can sign up for the coming grassroots movement.
Here’s what really happened.
With my conservative, entrepreneur friend, I opened with the health insurance burden on the ethical small business owner. How many entrepreneurs have we known in the past 20 years who closed their young businesses because they couldn’t afford the employees’ health insurance and they wouldn’t run a business without insuring their employees? Too many. Some small business had formed consortia and ganged up in professional organizations to insure their employees, but the costs were still too high for too many businesses. How many tiny business owners have we known who simply stunted their companies’ growth, always keeping just below the number of employees that would require them to provide insurance. Again, too many – and we didn’t like those folks who left their employees uninsured and filled resource gaps with contractors. So far, so good.
Then, when we were all in warm-fuzzy agreement, I launched into the universal healthcare model. Tax-funded, with corporate taxes as well as individual income taxes; burdens shared, peace of mind. Will of the people, surely – to ensure the basic healthcare needs of the most vulnerable of us: children, elderly, temporarily unemployed, workers whose employers couldn’t afford insurance under the current model. And. She. Agreed. Not a word about the evils of commie-pinko socialized medicine.
Success! Not exactly. As I was typing www.unitedprofessionals.org into her browser, she sighed and said, “But it’s so hard to fight City Hall!” She recounted a few personal horror stories of appealing medical insurance claims for her elderly parents and of zoning battles in her city. She had figured out how to (sort of) game the system that exists by contributing big to political campaigns, thus getting the politician’s attention to “intervene” in your behalf in various issues.
Start over. “How’s that working for you?” Well, not entirely. Not consistently. “Uh-huh. And how, as a genuinely compassionate and Christian conservative (which, I promise you, is truly the walk she walks), can you think the system is okay when people with money can game it even some of the time while citizens who have the same one vote but less “pull” can be easily bankrupted by a catastrophic illness?” Yes, she struggled with that problem. She gives. Her company gives. Her church gives. And fighting City Hall is so hard.
I observed that all the scattered giving isn’t effective; there needs to be a system. Net, with everybody’s taxes, including corporations’, we’d all end up giving the same or less, and we’d be sure that a tax-supported Federal system was doing the will of We the People to ensure the health of all of us. I reminded her that as citizens and patriots, it’s our civic duty to gather (if not also bear arms, at least not yet) to persuade City Hall of the error of its ways. Fighting City Hall individually is hard. Fighting it together isn’t much easier, but at least we can take over the Admin building, sing “We Shall Overcome” on the stairs leading to the portico, and attract lots of media attention … oh, wait, that was college in the ‘60’s. Same principle, though.
She’s thinking about it.
My liberal friend who’s way too familiar with the existing healthcare system’s shortcomings would surely be an easier hill to climb. I led with a little recap of her insurance appeals horror stories I’ve heard over the years. Yeah, terrible. Grumble, grumble.
Then, how about the time she was laid off and between jobs with zero health insurance? Oh! Awful. Terrifying!
Now, the universal healthcare concept. It’s yours regardless of who your employer is, even during the times when you don’t have an employer. “Ahhhh,” she sighed, “that would be ideal … but it’s so hard to fight City Hall.”
Same hill. Same climb. And she, too, is thinking about it.
They will both think about it because I am their friend, and my country’s citizen, and I will keep raising the issue. This is how a grassroots movement grows. You have to keep fertilizing it and adding more and more seeds.
Well … don’t just sit there. Go on. Fertilize what seeds you’ve got, and then go recruit some more. And come to United Professionals and write us your stories of action. Let’s all move forward into the best of times.
