WannaBeNormal - My Search for Peace, Love & Empathy

Hey all, yes its been awhile, but I am finally on the mend, and have some time on my hands because my daughter is between sports and work is kind of lacking at the moment, so I thought I would get a little political with you all today.

I want to talk to you all about a very big and controversial issue our country is facing, health care reform. We’ve got an election coming up folks, the candidates will all be talking big, trying to get you involved and interested, sharing their views. Well this isn’t their page its mine, so I am going to share MY views :p

My recent experience with the health care system in my area is chronicled here. I felt it was a travesty, and could not believe the treatment I received, and not only have I posted it here, I have been advocating whenever and where ever I can. The problem I faced, its not an isolated incident, it happens all over the country every day. There are (and don’t quote me on this, but I HAVE been doing my research, it just varies by publication) approximately 47 MILLION Americans without proper healthcare. If that wasn’t so sad it would be LAUGHABLE!!!!! We are one of, if not THE richest nations in the world, yet we have citizens DYING because they can’t get the healthcare they need.

This is a serious problem and its NOT going away. Why hasn’t this problem been addressed yet? That I can answer, its because of the insurance companies. They generate a lot of money, and a good portion of that goes to guess where? THE GOVERNMENT!! They make money, they pay taxes. Why would our government want to get rid of an industry producing so much revenue?

So what is the solution? Well there are many. Even if a solution was decided TODAY, it would be a long time before myself, and the other people that need it would see any benefits. One of the biggest problems in my opinion, is we addressing this state by state. Why? If it’s a national problem, it should be faced nationally. Whatever they do, it should be a uniformed change. Theres talk, and some states have even taken action but its not enough. In my state, to get assistance from my state, I would have to make 150% less than the FEDERAL national poverty limit per year to receive assistance. I would have to make under 333 dollars a month. Who can live on that? I would think if that was all I was making, I would imagine I would have bigger problems trying to care for my two children on that.

In my opinion, we need to start from the ground up. There’s two ways we can go with it to ensure that EVERYONE is covered. One would be, and this is the least probable but the fairest in my opinion, take ALL the insurance companies and either abolish them all, or merge them all together. Then for people who are employed, nothing changes, their employers pay for their premiums and maybe get a tax cut as an incentive. For those unemployed, employed part time, or working for small businesses that can’t afford to pay those premiums, they should MAKE the companies offer the SAME insurance on a sliding scale based on income. No one should be turned away for pre-existing conditions. Doctors should have to charge the same about for their services, across the board. Why is it that one surgeon charges 150 for an office consultation while another charges 300? These should be regulated services, at least for office visits, and procedures should be as well, though complications understandably arise, in which case they should be able to bill for those so that they are fairly compensated for their time.

Another possible solution would be, keep everything as is, though offer incentives to companies who offer insurance and pay premiums for their employees, but come up with a new, federally run insurance company, again sliding scale based on income. Still, in this case, we need to REGULATE THE AMOUNTS CHARGED BY DOCTORS for visits and procedures. This is something I can see coming true, but WE have to get involved. We are the ones who elect the officials who make these decisions. We are the ones who need to look up and research each candidates stand on the issues, we need to ASK the questions people are afraid to ask, and KEEP asking until we get the answers we deserve. They work for us people, we need to MAKE them do the things they promise, the things we elect them to do.

Bottomline people, research, ask questions, GET INVOLVED!!!! If we ALL band together on these issues, they can’t ignore us anymore.

Ok I think I am done for now *steps off soapbox*. If you are like me, if you are TIRED of electing these people to office only to have them make the situation worse, then you NEED to get involved. We need to stop bitching about it, and start acting on it. Take care all, keep an eye on those debates, and I will talk to you all soon!

Don’t ask her
What would she know
She’s just a girl
Her head is filled with thoughts of pink frilly things, matching shoes with belts, the best way to accessorize
She doesn’t know about life
Her brain is too small to understand life
She’s not meant to be consulted with, her empty head has no thoughts of her own, just thoughts planted there by men who know whats best
Don’t worry about her feelings
She doesn’t have any
She feels what we tell her to, when we tell her too
Her brain is too tiny to feel
Just point her in the right direction
Give her a pat on her cute little head
And ignore everything she says
Don’t worry about her tears
They arent real
You know whats best for her, just keep pushing her
Don’t worry about what she says
She has no clue what shes saying, she’s incapable of independent thought
Just tell her to smile
Tell her you’ll talk about it later, that should shut her up
Then tell her shes wrong, tell her your way, the right way
She’ll get it eventually
You have to remember, she’s just a dumb little girl
She doesn’t know any better
One day she’ll learn
One day she’ll listen to you
One day she’ll do things right
Until then just nod your head and pretend to listen
Then go out and do it your way anyway, the right way
She doesn’t know what shes talking about
She’s just a silly dumb girl