A Health Care Story
Tonight after leaving the library at 10pm I went uptown, North Pest, to pick up my bike where I left it at a bar on Friday night. I grabbed some tacos first and then it was already 11:30 so I tried to take my bike in the tram because I just had a lot of tacos, was very full, very tired, and had really sore capoeira legs, and didn’t feel like riding across the whole city back to central-south Buda where I live.
I had heard that you can’t take bikes in the trams, so I contemplated whether just to bike home, it was a nice warm night to go along the river. Well, I tried the tram. And then I wondered why the tram was taking so long to go. And then I see the driver, who had left his little safe haven driver seat, and come out just to tell me, very politely in Hungarian to get off the tram, which I understood by him pointing at the still open door, and all the rest of the people watching in the tram probably understood by the language. Cool. So, I guess I’ll bike then.
Minutes later I was flying past the tram which was going very slow over the bridge under construction with the wind in my hair, crossing my island Margit Sziget. Soon I was heading south on the Buda bank towards Szechenyi bridge, still aglow until midnight. Then I saw a person, who seemed to be wearing a head to toe red pimp suit, lying on the sidewalk and who appeared to be setting up his camera to take a picture of the river, the problem was there was a stone wall in the way. I thought this strange. I kept peddling. Then my crazy conscious kicked in and I thought what if this person is hurt, and I don’t stop to help. I really felt such a strong obligation to go back, that I was doing wrong. And really I don’t care what the rest of the world says, we have an obligation to help each other. No Maggi, youre being crazy and overanalyzing shit, he’s just taking a picture, if you ride back by he’ll look at you weird in his red pimp suit. It’s probably just another drunk homeless person sprawled out, what are you going to do for them, you cant even speak Hungarian, you’re going to get wrapped up in it. Just mind your business, you have so much work to do.
I stopped, I looked back. It was far. No, not that far, pretty far. Kind of far. Goddamnit, youre wasting time! (surprise) What the hell, just go. It wont hurt.
There is blood all over her face. She is lying flat on her back, and not moving. I start to freak out. I don’t know Hungarian 9-1-1. I don’t know Hungarian period! God damnit you should have learned your lesson from France! Is she dead? Is she alive? Oh my God. I drop to my knees. ‘Hello, Hello!’ She opens her eyes, there is blood all over the left side of her face, all over her left eye. I slow down, try to calm down, speak slowly. nem madyurul. nem bazilik madyurul. (dont speak hungarian) angulul? Angulul? Do you speak English? Aaannnglish? She doesn’t respond. She can’t respond. She is trying to sit up, she sits up. she is wobbling and very unstable, whats happened to her? Im afraid she is going to pass out any second and slam her head on the sidewalk. She just stares at me. Im still freaking out, whats going on with her head? There is blood everywhere, all over her hands and face, and she is smearing it, so confused. What do I do? I start going through my phone, need a Hungarian friend. Call Zoltan, he doesn’t answer. Try to find another that I know well because its midnight now, call Szabi, know he is reliable and will answer. A girl comes jogging up. Please help me, do you speak English? She does. Whats Hungarian 911? You know I don’t know she says….106 I think? She tries, it doesn’t work. Szabi doesn’t know it either, whats with these Hungarians? He looks it up, its 104. Nice jogging Hungarian girl tells me that the woman is very drunk. We call the ambulance. The woman is speaking a lot now, telling us not to call an ambulance, she is fine, where is oktogon, can she go there? (this is what I got out of the Hungarian) What is her story I wonder? Does she have a family? She is a nice looking woman, dressed all in red, with nice jewelry, clean clothes, a nice looking purse laying next to her which signified she wasnt robbed, she's clearly not homeless. What is she doing passed out unconscious drunk with blood all over her face on the street at midnight? She must have fell. I ask the Hungarian girl if she will have to pay a lot for the ambulance. I don’t want her to have to pay a huge fine, a huge fee for it (but what else could I do, take her home with me?)
Shes looks at me weird. No of course not. You know we have a system here. I don’t know how to describe it. I pay, we all pay. We pay every time, we pay with every check, from what we work. Everyone pays. And then no one has to pay, no one has to pay for ambulance. Its no problem. She wont have to pay. Only for certain big surgeries you must pay. Why? Where are YOU from? (sidenote: this is not the first time ive had this conversation, or gotten this look. by this point, i cant even count how many times its happened. and frankly, it makes you realize some things.)
Im from florida, I always say florida, not USA, only rarely has that ever needed clarification anyways. And usually people ask where in the USA, so with florida we can just skip that question. or Maybe im a statist.
And you have to pay? she asks.
Yes, we have to pay. If we don’t have insurance, good insurance, the right insurance, if we haven’t paid our huge yearly deductible. Sometimes we can have to pay a lot, it depends 1,000 or up to 10,000 dollars from stories I’ve heard, depending on the situation.
She looks at me horrified, aghast. If she was American she probably would have said “really?!" But she just looked at me with that face and I said yes, and I was sad and ashamed a bit.
In Hungary, a country 20 years fresh out of socialism, getting to experience democracy for the first time in a long, sad history of foreign rule and oppression and failed revolutions, they can make it work. im not going to pretend its perfect, but its different, and it works. It is not ‘depending on’ here, there is no depending, you are just covered. Everyone is just covered. Everyone pays alittle with every pay check. Whats so wrong with that? Are you going to call them socialist? Now? Because that would be comical, like I find it every time the Republicans spout off that narrative in the USA. This narrative has worked so well, surprisingly well (or perhaps not) in a country that knows absolutely nothing of socialism besides that “it’s bad,” and now whatever lies the Republicans tell. In a country that has known socialism such as Hungary they would say you were wrong, or stupid for saying universal health care defines socialism. Because you would be. Universal health care is not socialist. Or every European country would be. (sidenote: even if it was socialism, many older Hungarians, as well as in other newly independent states of eastern europe, they say they preferred life under socialism anyways.)
The ambulance guys carried her off and even thanked me in English. I stayed and chatted with my new friend. Shes getting her phd in biology at semaelas? We agreed late night jogging was dangerous, I told her jogging was boring, and she should come climbing. She said she tried it once and would love to. So I made a new friend. And felt good for going back. And come to think, I have gone back so many times and never felt bad for going back. ( one time in the paris metro I went back and a man was crawling up the stairs during rush hour, and looked like he was dying. seriously dying. and no one even paused, just dashed around him as he was trying to pull himself up the stairs, and everyone was pushing me and looking at me and judging me as a silly annoying person for trying to stop and help, there is always some bum appearing half dead in the paris metro, just move it along woman. I caved to societal pressure this time. I stood in the high pressure flow from people moving up and down, and nearly walking all over this man, I tried to think, I tried to have the what are you doing maggi conversation that normally ends in the right choice, but I couldn’t think in the chaos. And I too carried on. I knew that probably he wouldn’t respond anything comprehensible to my questions, like most mentally ill homeless people. Or even if he had, I always had particular problems with bum French. And then what, I sit and talk with him an hour, buy him a water? Call the police, and wait for hours, only to have them look at me like a huge idiot when I called them about a near passed out drunk bum? Yet, I still regret that time. It was the wrong decision. I never got used to seeing the homeless in paris or any city, who look like they are suffering so much, so lonely, sad, cold, drunk, alone, crying, yelling, angry, suffering, and ignored, avoided, forgotten, blamed, probably always blamed for everything. I cannot help to ask whose child are they, what is their story? Instead of hoping that I someday will get it used to it, I should rather hope that I never will, I guess my humanity is strong for lasting this long.) Im glad I went back tonight. That woman is probably someones mother, and someones sister, definetly someones daughter...anyhow she is someone, and thats enough for me.
Anyways, yes. Ive been wanting to write something on health care for awhile, Ive been wanting to write things on a lot of things for awhile, but instead I spend my days writing about methodology mostly and whatever else CEU demands.
According to the most recent update at the New York Times, the Democrats are now only waiting for Obama to sign “their landmark legislation.” We, as Americans, are still debating, we are still arguing, we are afraid, we are angry, we are skeptical, we are proud, we are happy, we have hope, we have the whole range of emotions. My position: whatever we have coming is better than what we had before. I had a realization today that later I will share. The Republicans tried to block this bill. They really, really tried. Its been a long nasty fight, that’s been consuming our minds, and our media to the point that were all sick of hearing about it. In my opinion, the Republicans told a lot of lies. I don’t want to be generalizable, I don’t want to be nasty, I want to be as fair and honest as possible, and stick to my morals and not ideology, (but I don’t have one of my own anyways.)
But the Republicans lie a lot. Since I have been conscious of politics the Republicans have been lying. To be fair, the Democrats lie a lot too. They have their share of problems. But they don’t lie as much, and they don’t go as low, they have more self-respect, more respect for the Republicans and more respect for you and I as citizens in general.
Lets look at two special examples of Republican lies, as proof of why we should not believe their fear provoking stories about health care and Obama right now.
Number one: Anything and everything surrounding the war in Iraq. Lies abound. This is not ‘my’ argument, this is not questionable anymore, not even among political science scholars. You can find books at your local store or library. If you would like proof I will download and send you some articles off Jstor anytime you need. Well, I think we have accepted this for the most part by now. No Republicans are still in my face, telling me that Bush is a good man, trying to protect America, and this war was in self-defense and to liberate the Iraqi people. Did anyone really try to ignore the correlation between a president whose entire career was working in oil companies, as chairman, on the board of directors, before his presidency and the fact that we invaded an oil rich country in the middle east on false pretenses? The Republicans told us a lot of lies, to scare us to believe them, to follow their way, to do what they want, so they can get what they want. And oh did they get what they want! The Bush Administration gave the Halliburton Company (Dick Cheney’s ‘former’ company) 27 billion in contracts, including a no-bid contract to restore oil production in Iraq. (Frank Rich reporting on Dick Cheneys new book for the NYtimes http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/opinion/14rich.html?src=me&ref=general) Twenty-seven billion. Our former president and vice president, Bush (the former oil baron) and Cheney (who it turns out owned a corporation who specialize in everything in defense, including oil production, surprise! Does it sound like a joint company to you?) decide to invade Iraq and walk away with 27 billion of our money. The biggest surprise to me at this point is the only place at the Times you find this is on the opinion page. Why weren’t we ever talking about this? Why aren’t we still talking about this? (Obama, hello, you told me you would talk about this. I know you are a good man, and want to move past partisan lines, you have tried, they wont cooperate, but lets not forget the past please. I still want justice.)
Okay, so I have two important points to make out of this. One: please do not believe what the Republicans tell you when it involves arguments based on fear. The lies could turn out to be in their interest, not yours. Two: please do not listen to the Republicans hypocritical nonsense when they talk about the big spending, socialist Obama administration, at least not until the former buddies of the last administration gives us our 27 billion back, not to mention the other billions spent on an illegal war precipitated on lies. Conservatives? Now you want to be conservatives? You wasted our money, blowing up nearly a million Iraqi civilians by some counts. Please dont tell me now that you want small government. Thank you.
Moving on:
Lets look at the 2008 campaign trail. I remember campaign ads saying that Obama was a terrorist, or had connections with terrorists. The Republicans were really trying to argue this, I still find it hard to believe. It probably doesn’t even shock you anymore, when you should consider that as an insult to your intelligence, including every other outlandish lie they told during this period. It was one lie to the next, at one point they were really trying to argue that he is not an American citizen and we cant find his birth certificate even though Moveon.org posted it on their website the next day. (Just to clear that up in case you are still in that camp, Factcheck.org run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at UPenn has posted NINE photos of it, for you to confirm. http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html)
But we Americans were smarter than that, we voted for him anyways, and he deserved it. We didn’t believe their lies. How can anyone believe anything they say?
Back to health care. I am grateful each day that the Republicans are out of power, but the lies are still coming, have been coming, coming constantly, from all angles, outlandish, insulting, disrespectful as usual. They are totally unhelpful, and unsupportive of the health care debate, totally self-serving, constantly seeking to instill fear into the heart of every American. This is how they have been winning votes and support for their party since as long as I can remember, why would they change now? This has become politics as usual for the Grand Ol’ party.
And finally! it looks like the Americans have made it past this too. Made it past their lies. So the big realization for me today was: If the Republicans are actively campaigning against this so strongly, and I have disagreed with their past policies so strongly, then this opposition is probably a good sign that there is some good shit in that bill!
Basically, if the Republicans hate it, it means its probably good for the common man. It means it probably doesn’t serve their selfish, corporate interests and might actually look out for our own. Of course, my father is sending me articles from the Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal all the time, telling me look at what these businessmen are saying and this private, wealthy, for profit interest group is saying, and sometimes like you, I start to ask myself, what is in this bill, is it good, or bad, right or wrong? And you know, I don’t know. And to be honest, I don’t have time to read it, not right now. But if the Republicans are so damn against it, then the realities of history seem to be telling me that its because its not in their interests, which means its in mine and yours, and the rest of us who don’t own oil mines, or defense corporations, or otherwise have a lot of money so we can be in the club. So Republicans, your fear mongering has failed.
Health care is going through! I am really happy about it. I am writing a philosophy paper on social justice and health care at the moment, and once again ran across the same fact that has been the base of my longstanding support of health care reform in the first place. I believe the whole debate is based in political philosophy, and what are the obligations of the state to its citizens. Americans disagree on this fact, and with health care its easy to disagree because its very complicated, health insurance is not like other rights, such as the right to freedom of religion or to freedom of speech (admittedly these are not simple either but comparatively more simple), it involves far more complicated costs, questions, and decisions by policy makers. But the fact is that the USA is spending more on health care than any other nation on earth, even more than single payer or universal coverage systems where every citizen is covered. (ex: France, Hungary.)
I mean could the situation even be any worse, why are we afraid of change? http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/04/uninsured.epidemic.obama/ According to this article, there were 45 million uninsured Americans in 2007, with 1 in 3 Americans without insurance at some point in 2007, meaning 86.7 million people. 86 million, thats more than the entire population of France. But yet we are paying more for our care than these other countries. Whatever side of the philosophical divide you are on, something is wrong in this situation, if we are paying more and getting far less, this is call enough for change. And its coming!!!
Tonight I was reading a thesis proposal by a friend here at CEU who is writing on welfare policy in the US, and the recent health care debates. She includes a quote from notable scholar Theda Skocpol back from 1996, two years after President Clintons failed attempt at health care reform, that I should like to reprint here for you.
“ It is hard to believe that there was once a time –even in this century—when retirement was nearly synonymous with poverty and older Americans died in our streets. That is unthinkable today because over a half a century ago Americans had the courage to change—to create a Social Security system that ensure that no Americans will be forgotten in their later years.
I believe that forty years from now our grandchildren will also find it unthinkable that there was a time in our country when hard working families lost their homes and savings simply because their child fell ill, or lost their health coverage when they changed jobs. Yet our grandchildren will only find such things unthinkable if we have the courage to change today.” (Skocpol, Boomerang, 1992.)
Tonight, I would like to tell my statesmen back home in America, thank you. And I’m proud. I’m proud of your courage to change.
