Speaking of Californians without health insurance — My mom was one of those, until about a month ago when I put her in a Blue Cross HMO. Seemingly a simple, worthy task, except she wasn’t happy about the $200+ per month price tag.
Me: What if there’s an emergency, like cancer?
Her: If I get cancer I’m not going to the hospital. The ones who go die faster.
Um, okay — This is coming from a woman who has mothered an MD she’s very proud of (not me, my sister).
My sis emailed today. Says she, “I talked to mom about the importance of primary care, but I’m not sure if she got the concept. She responded by saying it would be cool if I could do dog cloning with that scientist in korea…”
And in an additional disturbing twist, my mom keeps referring to her Roth IRA as a “health thing.”
In my paranoid moments, I wonder if a conspiracy programs the un-health-insured against health insurance. They poor don’t not HAVE it, they don’t WANT it, the argument might go.
Is it overly-idealistic of me to think that if we had more female policymakers, health care in the US — and public knowledge about health care — would look vastly different? At the very least, policies that attemt to control women’s bodies would be challenged more frequently. Feinstein, the only female on the 17-member Judiciary Committee, is also the only member who’s publicly vowed to question Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ views on abortion.
Boxer and Feinstein, our lovely Cali senators, do what they can, but they’re often lonely voices. These days I’m barraged with emails to sign petitions and donate money toward protecting women’s right to choose. Seriously, I get several a day.
If you’re at work, subvert the system through your desktop: Take a min to thank Feinstein and sign the Two Million for Roe petition from Planned Parenthood urging the senate to confirm only nominees who’ll uphold Roe v. Wade.
**Update, 10/1/05: Feinstein grilled Roberts and voted against him. The fight to save Roe v. Wade still rages on — Here’s the latest on the No on 73 Campaign.
Siel,
I’m sure my Senator, Russ Feingold, will place an equal weight on whether Judge Roberts will support or attack Roe. Roe is more about privacy than abortion, in my view.
Why isn’t your mother eligible for Medicare? If she’s eligible, then there’s no reason to talk as she does about her savings, the E.R., etc. That’s why Medicare was created in the first place.
Though not at work, I’ll sign the petition. Later.
Comment by Fletch — August 24, 2005 @ 9:38 pm
My mom’s still a young and vivacious 50 — it’ll be Aug. 1, 2020 before she’s eligible for Medicare. Hopefully it’ll still be in existence then.
Just read the Aug. 21 Meet the Press transcript with Feingold. He sounds like a nice guy :) Think he’ll run for prez?
Comment by Siel — August 24, 2005 @ 9:57 pm
Don’t worry yourself. No matter how expensive it will be, Medicare isn’t going away. The market’s utter failure to deliver health insurance to the elderly is why.
I think Feingold will run, but he won’t win the nomination for two reasons. He doesn’t have a broad political base (Wisconsin has only eight electoral college votes) and the state he represents isn’t a swing state (Wisconsin last voted Republican for President in 1988). In other words, it is safely Democratic. Ideally, someone needs to emerge from a big swing state like Ohio or Florida.
Senator Feingold has, however, indeed been busy during the August recess. He was in your town just yesterday for an address on national security.
Comment by Fletch — August 25, 2005 @ 3:50 pm
I’m still hoping Hillary will run and win, though NY isn’t exactly a swing state…
Comment by Siel — August 26, 2005 @ 9:20 am
She’d drive social conservatives crazy if she ran and won!!!:)
Comment by Fletch — August 26, 2005 @ 6:06 pm