"How can we not be united against death?" - Keith Olberman
People die, it is what we do. If people didn't die, none of us would be alive; there would be no need for new people. Death is a real help in bringing new perspectives to a changing world. You have formative experiences. People are designed to extrapolate patterns based on tiny occurrences. Some of them are bound to be wrong. And what was true need not be true now, so it isn't helpful to believe it anymore. In any event, there is nothing you can do to prevent you from dying. No matter how many times your life is saved, YOU WILL DIE. Accept it. Get over it. Those are the rules and no one can change them.
We, as a nation, will never be able to have anything close to a useful debate on healthcare reform until we admit that people, even American citizens, die. As it is, the "debate" is constantly derailed by politicians raising the grim specter of death as a way of dismissing anything the otherside has to offfer. As it is now, the success rate of the American Healthcare system against death is a dismal 0%. And, any change to the system is going to have the end result of 100% of Americans dying. So, it is more that the "leaders" of "our" "discussion" on healthcare refrom that need to accept death before there can even be a beginning to honest debate. Because they keep running down the middle of the street screaming about how "they" are so heartless as to allow people to die. (People, of course, in this case being US citizens, we can all agree that the millions of "illegal" immigrants here can just drop dead right away)
But it would help if American society could come to terms with death - just a little bit. In movies, it is a happy ending if all the main characters live and a sad ending if main characters die. Like if we don't see them die, they don't. A driving force of our healthcare system (that argue in favor all you want about certain parts of it, it is broken and has been getting steadily worse in all the ways it was already getting worse in back in the HillaryCare Horror of 1993 - 16 years.) is this grim determniation to "fight" death. A survival instinct is natural, fine. But death, also natural.
People can be suffering their whole lives, getting sick from preventable causes, but once it gets to the point where they are about to die, HOLY SHIT! death is wrong! Break out the ambulances and the wild technological advances. And, ok, we saved you from dying just then, but, it looks like you are going to die. Well, I am super rich and I will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to keep myself from dying (death, again, is unAmerican, and a sign of personal weakness, I've never believed in it myself). There are some good things that came out of this do whatever it takes approach. It has sparked innovation. There are people willing to pay for and undergo risky new procedures becaue of this insane rejection of death as "an option,"
America has come up with some kickass medical procedures to cheat death for weeks at a time. Of course, then uppermiddle class people try and get in on it, and then it gets into magazines and shit and people who can't afford insanely expensive procedures find out about them, and they too will do whatever it takes. And just going back to the emergency room, anyone who is actively dying, we go all out in stopping that. I mean, that is a different part of the whole healthcare problem.
However wrong it seems there is something definitely UnAmerican about not letting the super-rich using their (taxed) riches to keep themselves alive no matter the cost. I mean, that is their right. Here, your money counts as speech and counts as how important you are seen by your peers, and so why not in how you die. I mean, the Joneses spent 5 million dollars keeping their father alive, we can't spend less than that. We would be giving in to death.
Ok, so one of the problems is with procedures that don't make sense that were only invented to fit the fancies of the rich, and are only brought to a wider audience because people just can't die. We as a nation can't stand around while people die.
Shit. I didn't mean to get into every part of healthcare - it is so complicated and none of the actual issues have really been addressed soberly because of the whole American psychosis about death. We aren't united against death, except at the very end, unless you are an "illegal" immigrant.
But, the main, easiest thing to do, without any type of grotesque pork for insurance companies, is to create a Public Option for second tier health care. This will give people access to treatment that will keep them from unnecssarilly dying at age 30 or 50. And it will go a HUGE way towards keeping a lock on the insanely rising cost of health insurance.
All of the other things are for later. But even that one simple thing, which would help everyone (because you know emergency room visits and not being able to pay for care which makes hospitals and doctors raise their prices for people who can afford care, which leads to insurance companies raising their premiums and denying more coverage because they don't want to deal with these huge costs. With higher insurance and hospital and doctor costs, people who used to be able to pay are now no longer able to pay. This results in costs spiralling out of control, trying to get enough money from the ever dwindling population of people who can pay)
That one is sort of simple. But we can't even do that because you get bozos yelling at each other about death.
So, please, (assuming someone is reading this) use this Halloween and the Day of the Dead to try and come to terms at least a little about your mortality. You will die. And so will everyone you know and love. It is just the rules. It is okay to not want someone close to you die, but they will and if not know, later. Read around, find some nice rituals form other cultures. Americans are good appropriatiors of other cultures.
Posted via email from nicholasr's posterous
