The phrase ‘only in America would this be possible’ is often said in gratitude by immigrants born into a class system or Americans born into poverty when they are acknowledged as leading citizens, and asked to share their story. These iconic stories of ’success earned, as it should be’ re-tell us that the American Dream lives & we are still ‘the land of opportunity’. America’s founding documents declare that in our country there are no positions at birth that impede great achievements, but instead a bill of guaranteed rights to a life of equally available opportunities. An immigrant born into a hierarchy can work hard in our country’s free-market system and earn not just money but stature and respect in the business community. He can earn his citizenship as well. Success in business is calculated impersonally, by summing assets, material value & profit margins. Community respect & admiration are accorded for hard work, self-reliance & dedication. A child born into poverty can learn the value of education & utilize public resources to earn not just scholastic achievement, but a position at the highest level in any field or practice imagined. She or he is accorded esteem as a living example that many great Americans share humble beginnings. Personal success rising from disadvantaged circumstances can be of purely personal value or, like the immigrant, measured by material wealth. The immigrant begins by selling oranges from a cart & becomes a billionaire, inventing a wildly popular orange beverage. The kid raised on food stamps begins with an education in organizing skills & becomes President of the United States of America. The latter forgoes fortune because the opportunities granted in this nation are priceless & the chance to serve its people is an honor. Only in America, both would say, would this be possible. Neither path to success or measure of achievement is applicable to the other endeavor. We experience a deeper national pride in the latter story of success; against all odds the scrappy individual finds opportunities he is told his country provides, he prevails with determination, confidence, ambition & courage. It is the story of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Carnegie, and Oprah Winfrey and has the potential power, with no financial equal, to shift societal priorities & redefine the core values of a nation. Both kinds of success are encouraged in America because we begin with the belief we are created equal, with certain inalienable rights including the pursuit of a subjectively defined happiness. We all agree that America is uniquely blessed and characterized by these ideals. We do not all agree that all success is measured financially, and yet we all know some things should not be subject to free-market unlimited profit taking.
That said, I don’t agree that those who oppose healthcare insurance reform stand for nothing, or simply say “NO” on this issue. They are adamant in their commitment to principles that Americans hold dear. The principles the opposition stands FOR is the fundamental flaw in their argument against the reform of healthcare insurance practices. They are vociferously FOR protecting free-market capitalism, FOR supply & demand pricing, FOR drug company ‘agreements’ protecting pricing and patents* and FOR principles of capitalism in which money is exchanged for goods by agreement of both parties, without coercion or threat of physical force. What the opposition is FOR is not applicable to, or remotely related to a successful healthcare system. It’s a red-herring.
We have allowed healthcare insurers to cut coverage, reject quality over cost, cap pay-outs, dump ill human beings & fix prices for profit, so they can remain competitive with each other. Our sickness, our illnesses, & our treatments suck-up their profits. Ipso facto, our health and well-being are costly and the item of least concern to a profit-driven health insurance business. It was a mistake to allow the health of the nation’s citizens to be the basis for business opportunity, and a mistake to allow it to continue. Congressional opposition to reform howls about Socialism galloping over American economic principles, as if this mistaken application has squatter’s rights to the territory of healthcare insurance; the health of citizens be damned.
Private and public grade schools, universities, churches, the US Military and firefighters are not listed on the stock market because their success is not measured financially, for good reason. Those who oppose reform know this, and either know this is the flaw in their argument or are hereby notified. Healthcare insurance reform is necessary to correct an oversight. We let for-profit practices substitute for quality health care and did not foresee the need to project the unintended consequences of these misapplied practices & their inappropriate measures of success.
Of this we can be certain: no insurer will be denied treatment or die because their pay-out is capped, due to insurance reform. This is a pre-existing condition that is draining our economy, and we must treat it as it should be treated, for the health of our nation. A malignant cancer does not check your stock portfolio, your place in history or your financial assets before it proliferates in your body. Senator Kennedy knew this. He received the care of the world’s finest doctors, his suffering was eased & he benefited from experimental treatments that defied his initial prognosis for survival. We are all thankful for this, but Senator Kennedy publicly lamented that he received the finest treatment because he was born Edward Moore Kennedy, of wealth and fame, & had excellent government subsidized healthcare coverage. He said it as often as he could over 14 months: everyone should be treated with the quality care that he was treated. Everyone is created equal. Our founders wrote it as creed, and the Kennedy family worked for, stood for and lived for that principle. An oft-used pronouncement by many who oppose reform rings very true here, to we who support reform: every life is precious.
*note: the patent is a government protection and antithetical to free-market capitalism
