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Health Insurance Reform and the Economy
PLAIN TALK - As originally published in the Weakley County Press on 9/17/2009
Auction season is coming. I love auctions, I never know what diamond in the rough I'm going to find – its so exciting. The searching, the digging the sifting and then of course the bidding – it's just a fun way to spend a Saturday. So when the mail announcing all of the great stuff that I just have to see started arriving I was surprised to find myself not at all excited but instead disappointed and sad. The volume of industrial bankruptcy auction mail is just another reminder of the state of our economy. The fliers are difficult to read without wondering about the owners and how hard they worked to build their own business and their employees who need to find another way to pay the bills, fast. It's hard getting laid off and its hard having to be the one to do it. I've worked for small companies and big corporations and I think people just get closer, more like a team or even a family in a small business. The flurry of bankruptcy auction mail got me wondering, “What would this area be like if the Union City Goodyear plant went to auction?”
I'm sure I'm not the first person to have wondered that. I heard recently that there used to be a wagon wheel business in Dresden, over near Linden Street. When I heard it – I couldn't help but notice the similarity to circumstances today. Surely it took more than one person to manufacture wagon wheels back in the 1800's. Luckily, our beloved cars aren't being phased out like the horse and wagon were, but it is a strange combination of comfort and frustration to know that we've been through this before.
I've been through lay-offs and the first bill that I wanted to throw in the garbage was the COBRA bill for bare bones health insurance – I was in my early 20's, healthy, no history of anything at all why did I need to spend over $400 a month “just in case”? My Mom refused to let me do that and just a few short weeks later I found out I had contracted Lyme's Disease from a tick bite. Things worked out OK, I was able to buy my prescriptions and I recovered quickly but what if it hadn't been Lyme Disease? What if it had been something worse, like Multiple Sclerosis? I was the right age – there's no reason why it couldn't have been MS or something equally as life altering. What then?
Unfortunately, I know the answer to that, too, because as I was lucky with my Lyme Disease, a dear friend was not – we was diagnosed with MS – at barely the age of 26. Preparing for the “just in case” seems like common sense – but we all know its tempting not to - which is why this debate about health insurance, during a time when so many people are unemployed and many more are waiting to see if their job will survive the year is so absolutely stunning to me. My friend has not left his job since he's been diagnosed almost 10 years ago - he can't – no other insurer would cover him. It's a good job, but he's not thrilled with it, he could be doing something else, maybe making a higher salary or doing something he likes more. But he's not. He doesn't have the opportunity to live up to his full potential without risking his life because a group of Wall Street owned insurance companies made the rules. Not because he didn't study hard, or didn't work hard, not because he was reckless but because he has a disease. And he's just one person, imagine all of the people out there in the same boat, imagine how many small businesses are just one step away from ending up on an auction flier in my mailbox.
The national tantrum over health care has quieted down somewhat, and the focus has shifted to costs which of course, can't be ignored but I think its worth repeating a quote from Mark Williams, one of the organizers of the Tea Party Express. On CNN, when asked about making it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions his response was, “...there's probably a good reason because he's probably a bad risk.” and went on to compare people with diseases like MS to drunk driving. Representative Marsh Blackburn of the 7th District recently danced around a similar idea in an interview with one of the morning shows. She, along with Representative Tom Price of Georgia and even Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, three of the states with the lowest rates of health insurance coverage in the country, spent their 9/11 courting the tea party folks. A whole other newspaper could be filled with the antics of just those three and the millions of dollars in donations they receive from the giant Health Insurance conglomerates but conventional wisdom is that they are losing the support of their own constituents so I won't dwell on it too much here. They had their chance and did nothing.
The debate has shifted to costs – specifically to the national debt and the amount of money we owe China. Why is anyone surprised that we have to borrow money from China after we shipped so many of our jobs there? Those jobs used to be here – those workers used to pay income taxes on those jobs, they used to spend their money at businesses who paid taxes, we used to have enough jobs that we had to incent people to take them by offering, of all things, health insurance. We used to generate our own revenue for the things that we needed but now we're so dependent on foreign oil and cheap foreign imports that we have to borrow money from a Communist country. Can't we make good tires? Union City can - President Obama said so on Monday (Can't say that I've heard Senators Corker or Alexander praise the American worker anytime recently.)
Senator Corker, Senator Alexander and you too, Representative Tanner - the American People deserve the opportunity to live up to their full potential regardless of what disease life hands us. The American People deserve the opportunity to build what we need ourselves. Give us that, and the problem is solved. Stand in the way and remember, your seats will be on the auction block, too.
Auction season is coming. I love auctions, I never know what diamond in the rough I'm going to find – its so exciting. The searching, the digging the sifting and then of course the bidding – it's just a fun way to spend a Saturday. So when the mail announcing all of the great stuff that I just have to see started arriving I was surprised to find myself not at all excited but instead disappointed and sad. The volume of industrial bankruptcy auction mail is just another reminder of the state of our economy. The fliers are difficult to read without wondering about the owners and how hard they worked to build their own business and their employees who need to find another way to pay the bills, fast. It's hard getting laid off and its hard having to be the one to do it. I've worked for small companies and big corporations and I think people just get closer, more like a team or even a family in a small business. The flurry of bankruptcy auction mail got me wondering, “What would this area be like if the Union City Goodyear plant went to auction?”
I'm sure I'm not the first person to have wondered that. I heard recently that there used to be a wagon wheel business in Dresden, over near Linden Street. When I heard it – I couldn't help but notice the similarity to circumstances today. Surely it took more than one person to manufacture wagon wheels back in the 1800's. Luckily, our beloved cars aren't being phased out like the horse and wagon were, but it is a strange combination of comfort and frustration to know that we've been through this before.
I've been through lay-offs and the first bill that I wanted to throw in the garbage was the COBRA bill for bare bones health insurance – I was in my early 20's, healthy, no history of anything at all why did I need to spend over $400 a month “just in case”? My Mom refused to let me do that and just a few short weeks later I found out I had contracted Lyme's Disease from a tick bite. Things worked out OK, I was able to buy my prescriptions and I recovered quickly but what if it hadn't been Lyme Disease? What if it had been something worse, like Multiple Sclerosis? I was the right age – there's no reason why it couldn't have been MS or something equally as life altering. What then?
Unfortunately, I know the answer to that, too, because as I was lucky with my Lyme Disease, a dear friend was not – we was diagnosed with MS – at barely the age of 26. Preparing for the “just in case” seems like common sense – but we all know its tempting not to - which is why this debate about health insurance, during a time when so many people are unemployed and many more are waiting to see if their job will survive the year is so absolutely stunning to me. My friend has not left his job since he's been diagnosed almost 10 years ago - he can't – no other insurer would cover him. It's a good job, but he's not thrilled with it, he could be doing something else, maybe making a higher salary or doing something he likes more. But he's not. He doesn't have the opportunity to live up to his full potential without risking his life because a group of Wall Street owned insurance companies made the rules. Not because he didn't study hard, or didn't work hard, not because he was reckless but because he has a disease. And he's just one person, imagine all of the people out there in the same boat, imagine how many small businesses are just one step away from ending up on an auction flier in my mailbox.
The national tantrum over health care has quieted down somewhat, and the focus has shifted to costs which of course, can't be ignored but I think its worth repeating a quote from Mark Williams, one of the organizers of the Tea Party Express. On CNN, when asked about making it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions his response was, “...there's probably a good reason because he's probably a bad risk.” and went on to compare people with diseases like MS to drunk driving. Representative Marsh Blackburn of the 7th District recently danced around a similar idea in an interview with one of the morning shows. She, along with Representative Tom Price of Georgia and even Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, three of the states with the lowest rates of health insurance coverage in the country, spent their 9/11 courting the tea party folks. A whole other newspaper could be filled with the antics of just those three and the millions of dollars in donations they receive from the giant Health Insurance conglomerates but conventional wisdom is that they are losing the support of their own constituents so I won't dwell on it too much here. They had their chance and did nothing.
The debate has shifted to costs – specifically to the national debt and the amount of money we owe China. Why is anyone surprised that we have to borrow money from China after we shipped so many of our jobs there? Those jobs used to be here – those workers used to pay income taxes on those jobs, they used to spend their money at businesses who paid taxes, we used to have enough jobs that we had to incent people to take them by offering, of all things, health insurance. We used to generate our own revenue for the things that we needed but now we're so dependent on foreign oil and cheap foreign imports that we have to borrow money from a Communist country. Can't we make good tires? Union City can - President Obama said so on Monday (Can't say that I've heard Senators Corker or Alexander praise the American worker anytime recently.)
Senator Corker, Senator Alexander and you too, Representative Tanner - the American People deserve the opportunity to live up to their full potential regardless of what disease life hands us. The American People deserve the opportunity to build what we need ourselves. Give us that, and the problem is solved. Stand in the way and remember, your seats will be on the auction block, too.
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