Thursday 4 February 2010

Dear Congress,

As an American who has been living abroad and who was excited about coming home to visit, I have a simple question: What kind of fuckery is this? It turned out that today I needed some medical assistance, and getting it was almost more painful than the actual physical problem. And, I even have health insurance. But it didn’t matter. For most doctors it wasn’t the right health insurance.

So, Congress, I just want to know. WHAT THE FUCK? And I realize that I am using informal language and CAPS to make points, and I apologize for how this might seem unprofessional, less than decorous and less than serious. But the truth is, I am moved to this behavior because of the dead, and I do mean dead, seriousness of the issue of health care in America. I cannot understand how you can say you stand for Americans when Americans die and suffer unnecessarily, all the time, every single day, because of a system you refuse to genuinely challenge.

I know, I know. What if it leads us down the path to socialism? We all know that word is BAD! But you know what’s worse? Children losing their homes and their parents to cancer, unnecessarily. If guaranteeing everyone that we will make an effort to heal their body is socialist, I say BRING IT ON. I cannot imagine, really cannot imagine, that you want to sacrifice these good, hard-working mothers, fathers, teachers, manual laborers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, you-name-its, in the name of protecting Capitalism. Yet, that is what is happening.

Some of you will say that there are principles here that go beyond arguments about economic structures. You will ask, “What about the fetuses?” Have a care for the unborn children, right? Okay, even though I think your desire to make choices for my body is gross, I’m willing to allow this reaction. What I’m not willing to do is accept the next logical step that you take, which is to punish the ALREADY BORN children as part of your mandate to protect the not-quite-in-existence-yet ones. Because there are actual real, live children out there who are waiting for you to pass health care reform so that they can have coverage. They are waiting for their parents to get coverage. Let me tell you, it’s no fun to watch a parent be horribly ill as a child. It’s even worse when they aren’t getting help. I’ve been there, and that experience is just wrong.

So stop demanding the hostage exchange. Stop holding up health care until the other side agrees to hold up women’s rights. I acquiesce to your right to fight on to end abortion rights, even if I hope you lose every single time. But not like this. You are killing people in your quest, and isn’t that antithetical to what you stand for? Or are unborn fetuses the only ones who deserve to live in your book? I don’t want to think that you all are a pack of unfeeling, inhumane assholes, but I’ll do it if you are going to insist on this kind of behavior.

Congress, I wish I could say that this whole letter is about people without health insurance. But it’s not. Millions of Americans can afford health insurance and still get screwed. Some of them pay for it only to discover the insurance company refuses to cover treatments that are urgently needed. Others get booted after surviving a life-threatening condition. (Indeed, for all of our pink breast cancer fundraising, I’m starting to wonder whether insurance companies are more responsible for deaths than the actual thing.) Others can’t get health insurance because they have a pre-existing “condition.” It still boggles my mind that one can qualify for discrimination by surviving. Surviving. THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY PUNISHES PEOPLE FOR SURVIVING ONE OF LIFE’S MOST INCREDIBLE STRUGGLES.

Wow, are we a country of fucking assholes or what? Not only are people excluded because they fought to live and succeeded, but even when they have health insurance, a complex system of incentives has lead doctors to only take patients who have coverage from the “right” companies. In other words, corporate priorities have subsumed patient choice and patient needs. Need to find a doctor? Good luck! The best guy is only covered by insurance plan A, and you have insurance plan Z. Sorry, but you don’t actually deserve the best care.

I remember David Cross saying something along the lines of “Are we a nation of 8 year olds?” in one of his routines. I thought it was funny, but now I kind of wish we were. Even though 8 year olds can be mean, they also seem to be fundamentally capable of being concerned for others. This is more than I can say for whatever vibes Congress is putting out right now. What I’m getting from Congress is fear of change, fear of words, fear of pissing off corporate sponsors. What I’m getting from Congress is fear of behaving decently. I don’t care if it’s hard. It can’t possibly be harder than watching people die unnecessarily.

But that’s what is happening. And I don’t understand it, at the end of the day. Hence my question: What kind of fuckery is this? I don’t really know how to answer it, and to be honest, Congress, I don’t think you do either. So my recommendation is that you get up off your collective ass and fix it. Now. Prove that you actually are members of the human race. Show a little compassion. Show that you can recognize that the system, if it is not serving the people, has no purpose.

Thanks for doing the right thing,
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein