On Politicians and Health Insurers

As the drug made from blood product drips slowly into my daughter's veins this morning, I am struck by the irony of the article I am reading in the Los Angeles Times newspaper, an article with the title: HEALTH LOBBY SPENDS HEAVILY ON GOP. In a nutshell, the article describes the fantastic amounts of money being poured into Republican coffers as we speak, as the drug drips slowly into my daughter's veins, by the insurance companies, those bastions of health and service and morality whose lobbying efforts are the real movers and shakers in this "healthcare reform debate." I'm reading of their initial interest in the healthcare reform act, of how they poured money into Democratic leaders' coffers when they realized how much they stood to benefit should tens of millions of uninsured people be compelled to purchase insurance. But now the tide has turned. They are chafing at the new bits imposed. "The health reform law did not deliver the uninsured in the way that insurers wanted," says one veteran healthcare analyst. "Some insurers have said recently that they will stop selling some policies rather than comply with the mandate to cover sick children."

Do you want to feel sick? Read this article -- although I imagine most of you suspected it all, anyway. I'm reading it as the drug drips into my child's veins, and it's making my own blood boil. I'm going to let it boil, but I'm also going to use this anger productively and vote, stay engaged, fight for healthcare reform. There's a part of me that feels as if it's a losing cause -- that our country has totally succumbed to the evils of corporatism and big money -- the military/pharmaceutical/industrial complex - and who am I to go against these Goliaths? I am admonished by my conservative friends, by my conservative relatives. I feel pressure to be more "moderate" -- to lessen my own "rhetoric" and see to understand "the other side." 

You know what? I'm reading a little book right now for my training fellowship called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It's not really my cup of tea as it combines self-help with business principles, but what I read last night resonates with me this morning. There is an exercise the author recommends -- imagine your end, he says, imagine knowing when your end, your death might be. 

Here's how I'm using that today:

If I were to die tomorrow, I'd want to be on THIS side and not theirs -- the Republicans and the Insurance Industry. They make my blood boil, and they make me sick.