All Emotional and Teary-Eyed

This morning came the news that the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has brought forth the Senate's Health Care bill. Senator Reid also claims there are 60 votes needed for cloture. Ever since the House passed its own version of a health care bill by only 5 votes, there has been a great deal of speculation about the Senate's ability to come through with a bill not only acceptible enough to get through a Senate vote, but also to get through the reconciliation process that both houses of Congress must go through and vote on before it reaches the President's desk.

I believe the benefit of the reconciliation process is that it enables the Senate to limit debate on the bill and so avoid the dreaded filibuster. Reading that Reid believes he has the votes for cloture suddenly gave me hope that maybe after all my native land will have some form of health care with a public option -- well, it all made me feel very emotional and teary-eyed ...

But, I'm still holding my breath. Someone on the republican side said it will be a "holy war". I shake my head in wonder. Another article among today's offerings on the Internet reported that prescription drug prices have risen extortionately despite the recession. How fortunate I am to live in a country where all my prescriptions are paid for and have been since I was 60. Any American who thinks it's not a blessed relief to know that if you need a doctor or medication it's there for you, well any American who thinks that is not thinking. For sure, the NHS is not perfect and needs improvement, but few here would be without it you can be sure.

Well the tears have abated now. I'm holding my breath again as I have since medicare passed. I hope the spirit of Ted Kennedy is successfully haunting the halls of Congress and that somehow our legislators can think beyond the dollars of lobbyists and the political rhetoric to the public good and general well-being of our nation. So far the halls of the mighty have rung with sounds of apathy and injustice, with talk of 'holy wars' and so on and on.

Last November with the election of Barack Obama I felt a new hope for my long lost country. I felt that at last the people had woken up to a greater sense of nationhood than the selfish stand of the individual. But it will always be a battle to sustain a caring society; it will always be a battle for liberty and justice for all and not for the few. But it would behoove the 'few' to remember well that as distant from the 'many' as they deem themselves to be, wealth and success derives from those they would not be.

Apparently the Senate bill has pushed back the date for implementation of the legislation from 2013 to 2014. I worry about this ... what are so many uninsured people supposed to do until then? I worry this is a ploy by republicans and conservative democrats to be able to overturn the legislation before it takes effect should the re-election of President Obama fail. I wonder though, if it is possible to implement the change earlier if democrat numbers increase in 2010. What are the chances of that, though -- greater than electing a black man president do you think?

I Live in Hope, but I Despair ...

I despair. The news coming out of the Senate does not bode well for the Health Care bill. Democrats don't seem able to count on their own to support legislation. We shrink from our ideals and conform to fear. The battle is about survival to fight the next election.

It is impossible for me to understand how any intelligent and educated person can fail to see that the American people must have universal health care. The country is already sliding into lower and lower status when compared to other first world countries. My country's legislators or blindsided by rhetoric of big money and the agenda of insurance companies and pharmaceuticals. How can anyone in public office not comprehend the enormity of the problem facing so many Americans -- how can they consider themselves to be righteous, to be Christian, to be caring? How can they pursue this way?

I feel I am watching a struggle between the forces of good and evil and it looks as if evil is ... But I must not go there. Not yet. I don't have to worry about health care. I live in England. All my prescriptions are covered by the NHS. If I'm really too sick to go to the doctor, the doctor will come to me. I don't have to accept a $15,000 deductible. It's not perfect here ... but it is so much better. Anywhere in Europe is so much better. My son has had to leave the US and move to Korea. He couldn't get a job and couldn't get health insurance in Washington State. So he found a job in Korea and he is family now have health care.

I fear that not only will there not be a public option of any kind in the new legislation, but that the present situation will be made worse ... That somehow there is a hidden agenda that is being pushed behind the scenes. I can not believe that there are not some Republicans in body of the Senate that do understand the importance of health care for everyone. It depresses me no end that our politics is so sick, so marginalized that there can be such a lack of brave and forward seeking people that this legislation is even in the slightest danger of being passed.

And as far as Senator Liebermann and Senator Nelson are concerned: Shame on both of you. Shame on your cowardly selves.

Health Care is a Right

The debate going on at the moment in the US over healthcare has made me fear for my country. It is for me a very dark debate that doesn’t seem to have changed for thirty or more years. It is a debate that is a lie, a debate that is based on the fact that millions of people believe has to do with the future of their health care, but which is really driven by big business and the need to keep a large and powerful country a feudal society.

That is the irony of American democracy. That is the cold hard fact about a capitalist society. Keeping people tied to medical insurance through the workplace enables feudalism, distorts freedom and cripples liberty. Those angry faces on the television of people ‘not wanting America to become like Russia’, do not understand how they have been manipulated by their fears into believing that somehow having the right to medical care will undermine the country and lead to a ‘socialist’ state. The word ‘socialist’ is another one of those propaganda words that the capitalist forces have been able to abuse so that the ‘tethers’ in place, remain in place.

Most American people understand that the medical system is a disaster. As more and more people travel to other countries they have learned that what has in the past been sold to them as ‘socialized medicine’ and therefore a terrible idea, is in fact a liberating force within those societies. For many people in the United States life without the right to medical help is hellish nightmare that can include losing ones home, bankruptcy, and death. And just because you have health insurance doesn’t mean you are covered either. In addition to 46 million people without insurance are at least 25 million and untold millions more who are underinsured. So the message is to stay healthy and continue paying for insurance that you may find lets you down when you need it the most.

But I believe that most Americans know this. The media blitz is using old scare tactics, but these tactics are no longer pulling the wool over our eyes. The signs of hate and words of fear are from a different time when a media blitz could undermine our needs and our basic human right could be denied: the right to healthcare.

Sick, Sick and Sick

Lucky Grandma! I get to help take care of two little boys with pneumonia and to try and keep the smallest one from catching it, too. One of them uses a nebulizer every four hours; fortunately he did not have to stay in the hospital and was allowed to return home the night he was taken to the emergency room.

Emergency room! The thought of having to go there horrifies me. As the answer to the country's refusal to accept the notion of health care as a "right", the pressure has been placed on emergency rooms throughout the United States to treat those patients with inadequate or no healthcare. So for most of us it is a nightmare whenever we are so sick there is no alternative.

Fortunately, my daughter-in-law and grandchildren qualify for State of Washington medical assistance. Their doctor was so worried about the 5 year-old that she sent them to the emergency room for a bloodtest and x-ray. They left at 5 pm and returned about 1 am. The waiting room was packed with children -- some with broken bones and my grandson with a temperature around 105! (F) When he was seen the staff at St. Peter's were great -- but why does it always take so long? To be honest, emergency room treatment in the UK can also take a very long time, but I think the American nightmare is singularly dreadful for its time frame.

Both little boys are now on the mend and the care of their personal doctor has been superb. But the problem that face hospitals across the country are shocking. I cannot understand why, as I heard on television yesterday, 50% of the country thinks we should leave medical care the way it is. I am due back in Britain on the 15th of December and will be relieved to get back with my health intact. In the meantime I'm taken daily doses of Echinacea and Zinc in the hope that I can stave off any illness, at least until I get back.

So far my history of taking Echinacea and Zinc has been very successful. My son told me about it a few years ago when I complained to him about how often I got sick as a result of flying. So now whenever I fly I start of regimen of taking Echinacea tablets (4-6 per day) and Zinc (1 tablet per day) about two weeks before I'm due to fly. The measure is now being put to its greatest test! I feel pretty good, but as though I am fighting off something that doesn't quite have the where-with-all to strike me down. Just over a week to go and then once I get there there it's almost Christmas! (Scream, Scream, Scream)