CAUTION: Here, there be politics.
I try, so very hard, to keep this space limited to what is happening my life as a father, husband, and author.
I still live in the world right now, and the world is growing more and more outrageous by the week. I apologize that I have to take this post towards a political venting, but something said today was so outlandishly horrible that I have to devote time towards it.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), you are a horrendous excuse for anything resembling a human being. If you’re a Christian, and you are correct about how the afterlife works, look forward to your Jesus giving you such an enormous punch on your jaw that you’ll feel it for eternity. You earned it.
There are so many things wrong with this statement and attitude that I can hardly see straight enough to write it down in a coherent argument. I’m gonna try my best to do so.
First of all, the remark itself betrays a significant but very real shift in GOP politics over the last ~ 15 years. More and more, people who are having trouble finding affordable insurance are being cast as the villains. Indeed, this very statement alludes that someone with a pre-existing condition is being irresponsible. Somewhere, somehow, the individual in question has made terrible decisions which have led to their infirmity. This attitude further enshrines the ideal that the Insurance provider is stepping in to act as the responsible adult party in this exchange. They are offering to clean up the ‘mess’ that the heretofore mentioned ‘bad person’ has made. At their own cost, digging into the profits they are otherwise entitled to as a business.
First of all, Insurance providers are not people. I cannot stress this enough. Insurance as a general rule (I’ve worked in it, I have first hand knowledge) is in the business of not paying claims. There is no universe where I can emphasize this enough. All of the larger insurance companies are publicly traded companies. THEY ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF MAKING MONEY. Right off the bat, they have forfeited any claim or right to being ‘the responsible party’ because they can, and will, deny a claim at the earliest legal opportunity. Every single dollar they pay is dragged, kicking and screaming, out of their hand like it is their firstborn. Seriously. There is no exception to this rule. Not for any income range, nor any special persons. THEY. DON’T. CARE.
Second point, the fact that you are treating someones health like it is a replaceable asset like their car, is equally heinous. Think about it for two seconds. If you wreck a car, it can have far reaching financial consequences. I grant you that. But there are a ton of cars out there. Used, new, lease, that neighbor down the road. The list is endless. Can you go to the store and buy a new wrist? Spleen? Liver? Brain? There isn’t a Costco for body parts. Our bodies are a singularly unique miracle, and they are irreplaceable. We will never get another one. We don’t get another chance at living. So when some dumb schmuck who has never known struggle in his whole life calls someone who has had a medical problem irresponsible, I am justifiably enraged.
Third point: This man is in control of every single person’s healthcare. Unless you are fabulously well off, you can’t afford to shill out the thousands, plural, it cost to obtain insurance before Obamacare came along. I am upset, hurt, and afraid precisely because this person, and men and women like him, hold the keys to my entire medical future. I have no say in what they will do, other than to write this post in my own small corner of the internet. This won’t go viral. This won’t influence them. All the calls I could ever make to a GOP Senator will accomplish nothing. This last year, the GOP has shown that they have no principle but power. They are going to go through with this come hell or high water, no matter how many lives they will ruin or end by their decision.
Fourth, and most important point: 9,999 times out of 10,000, people are not responsible for pre-existing conditions. Take my own life as a perfect example. From birth, I have had issues with bi-polar depression, anxiety, a bad hip, a bad back, extremely poor eyesight, as well as family histories of stroke, heart attack (I’ve already had one and I’m effing 32), diabetes, and high blood pressure. Seriously. Before Obamacare, insurance providers wouldn’t touch me with a ten foot cattle-prod. NONE OF THIS WAS MY FAULT. Millions of Americans are in the same boat, and as stated above, Insurers are in the business of paying as little claims as they can legally get away with. They have no morals, no investment in community, because THEY AREN’T A PERSON. They are a mindless money making machine with no inherent morals or values. They can, and will, dump all over every single pre-existing condition that they can. Lobbyists, donations to political campaigns, and everything they try to do with Big Pharma (another rant for another day) is geared towards making as many things pre-existing as they could get away with.
That’s why Obamacare was such a relief to so many people. Finally, finally, we had some breathing room to work with. We could pick insurance, and it wouldn’t be affected by things that we mostly had no control over. We wouldn’t be put into high risk pools (which cover less people at ruinous costs), and we wouldn’t be denied coverage outright due to, and I can’t say this enough, things which we have no control over.
That’s really the crux of the whole issue. People like Rep. Don Johnson, Rep. Mitch McConnell, and President Trump, have absolutely no idea what it means to try and afford this sort of insurance. Cobra coverage, High Risk Pools, and Emergency Only policies are unaffordable and inefficient by design. Insurers do not want us to receive care, because people with pre-existing conditions actually need to use their insurance and would eat into an insurance companies profit margins.
We already have an uphill battle trying to manage our conditions and still function in regular society. Attitudes like this are not helping us. They make our lives infinitely more difficult, because there is a very real possibility that unless I land a job with great health insurance, I will never be able to afford the medications which help me be a productive member of society. Having some sanctimonious prick cut me off at the knees, then whine about how I’m not able to run with the pack, is vile in every sense of the word.
Rantfully,
Justin
