Sicko

I know it's been a while...sorry about that. I can't say I've been busy...in fact, what I'd say is I'm so bored with life in general that I haven't had any reason to write about anything. My dad came to visit for his Christmas/Birthday present, which was nice. But other than that...nothing too exciting.

This week has been a bit more exciting. First of all, I really am loving my job, as well as feeling like I'm actually sort of getting the hang of it--a sense of what I like and what I'm good at. I've had some really great conversations in some of my classes...others have been quite a bit more challenging. Monday, for example, I did a lesson on communication (which I've found I love teaching about) with a Family Group at West Side High. They were seriously the most inattentive, rude group of students I have ever seen. There were like 6 of them, and still, they just sat there and ignored me most of the time. Ridiculous. But I persevered and made it through and feel better about my teaching skills for it. Challenges help you learn, right?? I had my last puberty class at the middle school on Tuesday, which was quite sad. I have very much enjoyed teaching the silly 12-year-olds about taboo subjects...They are adorable and sweet and totally inappropriate. Fabulous.

We also had some wonderful weather (which is now a faint memory...) that I very much enjoyed. That's pretty much all I have to say about that. Except that it I'm looking forward to it coming back.

Last night, in my boredom, I watched "Sicko," Michael Moore's documentary about health care that I should've watched when it came out years ago...BUT it was excellent and I just wanted to step up on my soap box for a minute. I could not believe how stupid, uncaring and selfish Americans look from a public policy stand-point in this movie. Every other 1st world nation manages to provide quality medical care for its citizens. Yet, as the richest nation in the world (perhaps not for long, since we've failed to manage our resources very intelligently), we are unable to do so. We let babies die, people go without medical care because they can't afford it and families declare bankruptcy simply because they got sick and the insurance they thought would take care of them wants to make MORE of a profit. It is inhumane. In addition to all of that, any argument for "privatizing" (using for-profit insurance companies) the payment for medical services so that it will be more cost-efficient falls quite flat. We spend MORE money to get WORSE outcomes. How stupid are we?? I put "privatizing" in quotes, by the way, because our system is extremely subsidized by our taxes, and therefore it is not actually private. So we, as taxpayers, are paying for a system that does nothing to prevent us getting sick, and encourages (because it is for-profit) denying coverage in any way possible. Just stupid.

So, having made my argument AGAINST the system that we currently have (not hard), I'd like to make an argument FOR a single-payer system. We need health care that is not-for-profit. If it is for-profit, and the profit we're talking about here is short-term, that quantifies life into money, which is just not okay. It treats health care as any other commodity that people want. But health care is different--people don't just want it, they need it. Now. By need I mean, if they do not have it, they will die. Thousands of Americans die every year SIMPLY because they did not have health insurance or their insurance denied their claim so that they could save some money. It is essential, therefore, that a health care system work in a non-profit model--the focus should be on medical outcomes, on making people healthier and ensuring the health of all Americans. The only way to create this system, across the board, is through the government--we pay (through taxes), the government covers (through insurance).

The problem is that most Americans just don't trust the government. But they also don't hold the government responsible for the things it is supposed to do, which is the REAL problem. If you don't hold an entity accountable, it will not function as requested, so of course you shouldn't trust it! We need to start looking at our government as a way to pool our resources together and redistribute it. There is nothing wrong with redistribution of wealth. Most of what you make is because of luck anyway. 90% of what you make is due to the infrastructure of the society that you live in, which is made possible by the government. We NEED our government to work for us, we do not need to get rid of it!

What Americans fail to understand is that we are all in this together. We succeed together, or we fall together. And when some of us begin to fall, we all begin to fall. Until we can accept that, we will continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, speaking of independence and shackling our future selves to a broken society.

Okay, obviously, I could go on. I'm a little frustrated. My point is, I don't have a whole lot of hope left as far as reform, even with our beloved President. I'm pretty sure America is on the way down, as far as global power goes. I'm not even sure exactly why we're still "on top." A gloomy outlook, I know. So feel free to disagree...but you have my thoughts.