SubscribeLast night, Bill Maher had a one-on-one episode since he is currently on break from his HBO series Real Time. One of his guests was Bill Moyers, who is one of the great journalists of our time, and one that still has the ethical compass pointing in the right direction.
On the topic of healthcare, he said the best metaphor for our current situation is that "we're all in the same boat" which got me thinking... really? Are we really in the same boat? Or are we all really in different boats?
The first boat is the luxury cruise ship. These are the folks who can afford the best healthcare at any whim, they have the best health insurance available, and no worries. The next boat is where the majority of Americans are floating; this boat is the minimum health insurance with high co-pays, high deductibles, and that insurance will not exist once you get sick. The third boat is, well, the Titanic. This is where the rest of American's are floating, and it is straight down the Ganges.
The healthcare battle is really about the haves and have nots. People who have good jobs and good insurance don't 'want to pay for everyone else'. But of course, in every society, we need ditch diggers in addition to investment bankers; I for one think those ditch diggers, those retail employees, those restaurant servers bringing the bankers their martini lunches deserve just as good of insurance as everyone else, but they don't... instead that have limited coverage, or worse, no coverage. This also means their children have no coverage.
The truth is, we don't have healthcare in the United States. Instead, we have 'sick care'. Specifically, we care for the sick, but we don't foster prevention for the betterment of all of the persons in the country. There is an absolute, moral imperative to ensure everyone is fed, clothed, housed, and cared for. This includes ensuring each and every person has healthcare coverage, including preventative care; the emergency room is not a plan for long term health.
There are those who think a 'moral imperative' has something to do with religion, and those who believe that without religion, we can not have morals. Here's the reality... bull-hockey. The reality is that each of us has the care of each other within us, but there are those who are more concerned with having a 5,000 square foot home so they don't have to see the other members of their family, rather than living in a reasonably sized home in an urban center and ensuring that their neighbors are cared for.
So the question is, what is the proper metaphor? Since everything in this country seems to have to surround religion, here is the answer for the average midwesterner: "What Would Jesus Do? He wouldn't let people suffer so he could have lower taxes." These folks at the town halls protesting abortion, socialism, and calling the president Hitler are deflecting the real message away from what really matters; Jesus of Nazareth would care a lot more about those poor suffering souls with no health insurance than the upper middle class blond in pink bitch driving the minivan with two televisions in it. There was never a greater socialist than Jesus of Nazareth; "...I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
