Sick Days and Orange Wedges.
I spent the past couple days at home due to a severe stomach ache. Sick days were much more fun as a kid. You sit up in bed and play Super Mario all day, a bowl of orange wedges placed conveniently at your bedside table. As you get older, sick days become less common, but more scary. Scary because it’s no longer about orange slices or days off school, and more about avoiding the doctor and praying that if it’s something serious, there was some kind of health coverage to take care of it. Mom assured me it was probably a case of dehydration. Too much freeze tag during our picnic at the park I suppose. Tomorrow, I’ll be fine. Another visit to the doctor avoided. Another medical bill unpaid.
This made me wonder: what exactly was the problem with Universal Healthcare, or at least some form of it? “Socialism,” they say, “Communism” they cry. We say these things coming from the mid to upper levels of our capitalist society. I’m not against capitalism. The pursuit of the American Dream is what we’re all here for, but how can we help ourselves if we can’t find the goodness in our hearts to help others? “Do unto others,” Jesus says. God said a lot of things that formed the basis of a country that affirms “In God We Trust”, yet our actions don’t follow suit. “Thou shall not kill” He said, as we send our own children to another country to die. “Love is patient, love is kind” says the Bible, as we spit on the gays who want nothing more than to profess their love over the same Book. “Blessed are the poor,” said Yahweh, while we deny young Billy of his medical coverage.
I’m not saying these things to be facetious, I really want to know. What is wrong with the concept of universal healthcare? I ask this because I admittedly don’t know very much about anything, and entrust everything to common sense. Right now the common view regarding this subject doesn’t make much sense to me at all. We already have a form of “universal healthcare” in place for old people because they can’t provide for themselves, hidden in the less threatening moniker “Medicare”. President Harry S. Truman was the first recipient of this national federally-administered program. I know this because I wikied it. Do we really not have a penny more to spare for younger people who are also on the brink of death?
I say we stop super sizing our value meals, settle for the small, and let the hungry people have a bite. If not a Big Mac, then at least a small bowl of orange wedges.
