I watched an hour's worth of footage from three of Senator Dorgan's (D) North Dakota town hall meetings on August 12th. The meetings were disturbing and unsettling. The tension in the rooms was clear even over broadband. It is obvious that Byron Dorgan is in favor of some kind of government involvement that goes way beyond what we have now. It is obvious that there are many who are deeply opposed to greater government involvement in health care and the invasion of privacy and destruction of personal liberty that will necessarily result.
Still, there is one statement in favor of government intrusion of health care from a member of the crowd at the Casselton meeting that is worth exploring. A lady took the mic and described how her life had been taken over by the repayment of hospital bills. She worked hard day after day, not able to advance on the upwardly mobile scale like many Americans, but only keeping her family afloat and paying off her debt to the medical industry for a health crisis in her family. She stated that she hadn't asked for this health crisis to happen, but life dealt her a blow and she only now, years after the incident, has paid off her bill.
l applaud this woman for assuming responsibility and ascending to meeting the financial obligation (that nobody would ask for) thrust in her lap. Hear me out. At the risk of sounding uncompassionate for a moment, I would also like to say that each of us are dealt blows in life. Each of us face hardships not experienced by others. These experiences are often some of the most difficult circumstances in our lives. This woman did the right thing. If she doesn't let bitterness and envy eat away at her, she will be stronger and better for the hardships she has endured and experience many positive rewards throughout life.
Although they may be heartbreakers, instances like the one mentioned are not good reasons to look to the government for a take over of American health care as this woman is doing. For every story like this, there is an equally compelling story to persuade us not to look to government as the solution. I can draw one from my own life.
My husband was paralyzed from the waist down in a farm vehicle accident thirteen years ago this month. He walks now. Had government been in charge of health care, that likely wouldn't be the case. Immediately following the accident, the emergency room doctor applied a cutting edge treatment for spinal cord injuries that she had learned about only the week before that. There is a very small window of time (less than an hour) for affective application of this treatment. He was treated in time with results that impressed every doctor he saw thereafter.
My husband walks, but he lives with persistent daily after-effects from the accident that most people his age have never thought of, consequences he never asked for: one of life's blows. But he is a stronger, better person because of it and has a rare magnanimity and appreciation for life.
Recently, a friend spent two hours dealing with farm management issues in the Farm Service Agency (FSA), an agency of the federal government. He had an issue that he raised months ago with the agency, but his concern was not being addressed. He went in to get it resolved. The whole office was filled with tension. A neighbor of his who worked at the agency said that in the over twenty years she had worked for the FSA (previously ASCS), she had never experienced a worse year. Everybody was on edge. Employees, including herself, were not sleeping. After standing there for two hours, my friend learned that the power of attorney form that had been signed by his wife and on file was lost. He had to travel for an hour to obtain his wife's signature. When he returned, the lady behind the desk told him that he had been given the wrong forms and would have to start over again.
We must ask ourselves: Do we really want our life and death decisions to be rubber-stamped by overworked, overstressed government employees? Every intuition based on past experiences with government agencies informs us that this will also be the case in government managed health care. Under a system like that, what incentive would the doctors have to attend seminars on the latest treatment technology? What incentive would companies have for developing them? Had my husband stepped into a hospital environment fraught with internal pressures from ever-changing government policy where doctors and nurses were overworked and underpaid and where long lines of unattended patients were waiting, would he have received timely treatment? I think it is safe to say no. He would likely have lived the last thirteen years in a wheelchair and still be there today.
But the woman whose hospital debt took over her financial life could use an arm around her shoulder, a little support in the midst of trauma -- believe me, I know. Instead of handing the whole American health care system over to the federal government because of such instances, why not provide innovative ways of dealing with crisis? In this example, why not have a well-screened program with rigorous criteria for a compassion fund? It could be administered by the government if we are determined to see the government as provider, but better yet, why not give philanthropic organizations and/or businesses incentives and cooperation with the government to provide this kind of fund for people debt-ridden with hospital bills?
Senators Dorgan, Conrad and Congressman Pomeroy, there are a myriad of solutions to some of the most painful problems associated with our current health care system. Don't turn control of our personal lives over to to government and shut down the private health care system. Look for freedom-friendly free market solutions. And fellow citizens, let's be responsible. Let's get creative, and let's stop looking for parental care and crisis-relief from the government alone.
