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Socialist Health Care

2009-09-03: Socialist Health Care - Misc Stuff

My X-Girlfriend is not an American citizen. A few months after we broke up, her sister called me on the phone in tears. My X was very ill. I drove over to her house and brought her to the Emergency Room.

The doctor said that there was a good chance she had spinal meningitis, and that someone would need to authorize a spinal tap. My X couldn't talk coherently. Her sister's English wasn't the best, so I had to explain the situation to her. The tap was authorized, and she did indeed have spinal meningitis. The doctor told me should would have been dead within hours had she not come to the Emergency Room.

(Fun Sidenote: She lost like 20 pounds in two weeks and was totally hot. I highly recommend nearly-fatal spinal meningitis to lose all that winter fat.)

To my knowledge my X never paid for any of that, and she isn't even a citizen. And over and over I hear these horror stories about how horrible our health care system is. This is wrong with it, that is wrong with it. "The system is fundamentally broken," I hear.

What? The system saved her life, and saves many lives every day for free. It's against the law for them to turn someone away who is dying.

So, exactly what is wrong with the current system? People say this and that, but it all boils down to personal responsibility. People want to live whatever lifestyle they wish, make whatever poor decisions they wish, and ultimately have the government swoop down and provide a safety net when they need help.

Quite simply it is socialism. It's not "fair" that rich people can afford better health care than poor people. Therefore money should be forcibly extracted from rich people's income and used to fund health care for the poor. Period. Say what you wish, but there is simply no other way to look at it. It is socialism. While I am not a proponent of socialism, I can at least respect the opinions of overt socialists. What disgusts me, however, is the doublespeak of the modern left as they push a socialist agenda. Call it what it is. Then see if you can get any votes.

Several years ago I was quite rabid in my politics. I was angry all of the time, and I even had a "Politics" section on this site. I got hate mail by the bucketful, but I kept on speaking my mind.

Then I lost a bunch of weight and moved to the French Quarter. Two things became apparent pretty quickly: 1) I was completely alone in my political beliefs among the quarter kids and 2) It was really hard to get liberal chicks to sleep with me when I went off on conservative political rants.

So I shut down the political section of my site and pretty much kept my mouth shut about politics. There are a few quarter-ites with whom I enjoy political debate, but they are few and far between. The average quarter kid's political acumen amounts to "Bush is Hitler," "Jon Stewart is a Genius," and "Republicans are Fascists."

Hundreds of times I have uttered the sentence, "I don't discuss politics when I'm drinking." Hundreds of times I have deleted emails before I sent them, deleted posts on this site before (or after) posting them. Hundreds of times I have just kept my mouth shut. All through this election I kept my mouth shut. I didn't mention that McCain -- who had been the Republican Darling of the media for years -- was painted as the devil himself. I didn't talk about the skewering of Hillary. I didn't talk about the demonization of Palin. None of it.

I didn't talk about the bailout. I didn't mention that McCain's support of this bailout, and indeed the Republican party's support of it was essentially a death knell for any sort of Republican enthusiasm in this country.

But this health care shit is too much. It is more than I can stand. "That's all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!"

What we have here is a fundamental rift between people like myself, and what seems to be a growing group of helpless children in this country.

There are those of us who believe in freedom, liberty and an American Dream of almost radical individualism. Our idea of government is similar to the idea of the founders of this country: An intentionally limited government, a government who provides a military, infrastructure, and laws -- and otherwise stays out of the way. The idea of this government providing health care is absolutely ludicrous. We inherit a distrust of the government from our intellectual forefathers. We understand that the government's soft hand of comforting support is inextricably attached to another hand gripping shackles.

On the other side of the fence you have the intellectual heirs to the ideals of the 60s. Our forefathers, rather than being visionaries who created the greatest country on earth, are instead white slave-owners who raped the Indians of their land. The American government has committed atrocities here and abroad, and must make up for it. What a strange dichotomy that this same evil empire is to be trusted to run every aspect of our lives.

For these people there is no limit to government responsibility. The government exists to fill every hole in our lives. Any and every mistake we make should not (must not!) cause us harm. If we build our homes next to water and a hurricane comes, it is the government's job to pay for our house. If we smoke and drink our lives away, and have too many neck-tattoos to get a good job with insurance, it is the government's job to pay for our doctor's visits.

After Katrina I had to leave New Orleans. I love New Orleans more than I can describe, but I had to leave. My career had moved over an hour away, and the commute was impractical. As much as I wanted to stay, I made a sacrifice because I knew it was the best thing for my life financially. I have been making sacrifices of this sort my entire adult life. I have skipped the Rock Shows on the Wednesday night because I had an important meeting in the morning. I didn't get the tattoos because I knew it would be harder to climb in business. I didn't get the piercings, the hair, any of it.

I have sacrificed. I have spent months at a time in hurricane-torn areas far from home doing computer work. I have literally traded months of my life for financial security. For money. I have not had children because I felt that my life was not stable enough to do so. Even now I am afraid of not being able to provide a stable enough life to have children.

Sunday night I was in the Quarter. It was my birthday, and I wanted to spend a couple of hours in the quarter just grabbing a few drinks and relaxing. It began to storm, so I had to stick around a little longer than I'd like. Next to me in the bar was your typical quarter rat. Piercings, tattoos up his neck, strung out all-to-hell from drinking and drugs. I generally don't judge. It's his life and he can live it how he sees fit. If he wants to spend his life at a bar, then so be it. In a way I envy him. There is an allure to that lifestyle, but it comes with inherent consequences. As long as somebody accepts that, then how they live their life is none of my business.

Then, after about an hour of his stories about passing out in bars, having random sex with bartenders, drugs, etc., he makes a passing mention of his kid's health problems.

Yes, this is the kid that will be on governmental health care. This kid, who for all intents and purposes was engineered by its father to be fucked up and require governmental support, should be my financial responsibility.

You see, me, I had to leave as soon as the rain let up. I had work the next morning, and I had a drive ahead of me. I couldn't drink any more because then I couldn't drive for a few hours. Then I would get home late. Then I would be useless at work the next day. It is through this work that I make my money, and also through which I have a health insurance policy. I understand the consequences of my actions, and I live my life accordingly.

The Quarter Rat? There is a pretty good chance he was still in that chair drinking when I got up for work the next day. Where was his kid? Who knows. All I do know is that this is the true face of government health care.

You support government health care? What you really support is ME paying for YOUR health care. Let's call it like we sees it. I am the guy who has gotten up every morning since he was 18 and busted his ass. I am the guy who has been careful, and made sure that he could always take care of himself. I have struggled in my career, and I have sacrificed. I have missed out on a whole lot of fun to earn my place in life.

So it's fair to forcibly take my money away to pay for that Quarter Rat's health care? I think not. He made his choices. Indeed, he is still making them. He stayed there late on a Sunday night while his kid was God-Knows-Where.

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