On Health Care

When my Dad had stomach pain for weeks on end that resulted in emergency gallbladder surgery, I spent an evening pacing hospital hallways crying. Not because I was worried for Dad — I trusted the doctors, and they said it was very low risk. It was simply fixing the problem, and we were more than grateful to finally have a solution.

No, I was crying over the cost, money I didn't see how we could pay. I was in college, juggling grants, loans, and work to make my bills, and here suddenly we had a (seemingly) massive $5k or so bill due tomorrow. And, as huge an expense as that seemed in a private hospital in Thailand, it was hilariously cheap in comparison to what it would have cost in the States, where childbirth costs $30k on average.

Healthcare isn't an option. It's a necessity. It was a necessity when my Dad, a couple years earlier, was in the hospital over Christmas with seizures, or a couple years before that when my sister broke her arm by, of all things, jumping off a sofa onto a carpeted floor — a mistake that cost over $1,000 in an American emergency room. It wasn't an option when my mom needed thyroid treatment, and had to beg and plead to get just the initial visit under $300 in the US. It wasn't an option when I, stupidly, sat on a glass coffee table and gashed my wrist — something that cost me $100 in another private hospital in Thailand. And it sure wasn't an option when my 5 year old nephew needed chemotherapy and surgery and the resulting followups, all of which have been paid for by Thailand's subsidized healthcare.

Somehow, healthcare has turned into a political game, one that had deadlocked Congress to the point that they cannot pass a budget and are shutting down the government. It's become something you're for if you vote for one party, and against if you vote for the other. And that's ridiculous. Keeping people healthy without breaking the bank should hardly be a political issue to be debated, and it absolutely shouldn't be something you oppose because you didn't vote for our President.

The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare to the skeptics, isn't the the absolute solution for America's healthcare woes. I'm personally for (more radically, perhaps) 100% subsidized healthcare, something that's the norm in Canada, Australia, and Europe. The Affordable Care Act doesn't bring that to the US, but it's a start. It's got people thinking about healthcare, and how it needs to be affordable and approachable for everyone. And that's a huge thing for the US. And, of all things, it's modeled on a plan that's working right now in Massachusetts, after it was started by a governor who ran for president on the party that so vehemently opposes the act.

We have free schools and libraries and Smithsonian because education is important. Free parks beaches and national parks because the outdoors — accessible to everyone — is important. Police to protect us for free, roads and bridges for free because transportation is important. And we can't have free healthcare?

Healthcare isn't a privilege; it's a right. Everyone should have equal access to the best healthcare we can offer, and no one should sit at home this winter trying to scare a sinus infection away with hot tea since the doctor is too expensive. No one deserves to go bankrupt because of one health issue.

I'm not a Republican or a Democrat. I'm an American. And I believe free, universal healthcare should come right along with freedom and justice for all.

Everyone in Congress who's brought us to this impasse should be ashamed of themselves, especially now that government employees below their pay grade will go without pay this week over their political games — games over other people's health. That's evil.

PS: Unlike what you've likely heard, here's stories from real people of how healthcare works in countries with free healthcare.

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