The importance of talking to friends and neighbors about the real health care bill

[DeschutesRiver]

Dh just got off the phone with a friend/businessperson, whose husband is terminal, had taken a turn for the worse, but is still hanging in there. He said she was quite exercised about this "health care reform", because if it passed, her dh would have been turned down for his end of life hospice help/treatment. I assume she meant the death panel rumor (dh & I were watching O in MT and so I didn't get in depth details). She couldn't understand how anyone, even Obama, would put forth such a horrible thing, and how anyone could want her husband dead. This is not a stupid woman, not a bigot, not an Obama hater, but dh said he couldn't believe how upset she really got on the phone over this.

Yesterday, he and I had discussed Obama's health reforms at length - I had read him the email of David Axelrod that I saw here at DU, and we also discussed the stupidity of the "deathers" and the correct arguments to present to people who were being scared by this crap. He had a rather long discussion with our friend, and by the end, she just kept saying "that makes much more sense...I am for all those things...I was just getting so scared with hearing bad stuff that made no sense, but everytime I sat down to feed my dh, I looked at him and was terrified thinking what if the bad stuff is true? He would be dead right now...".

This kind of fearmongering, preying on the stupid/gullible, and even the not so stupid when they are in the middle of a terminal health care crisis of a loved one, is just sick shit. And it has driven home to me that the responsibility for making sure the message is heard correctly is to carry the message ourselves to people we know, who may be under the influence of the fearmongers. I had no idea that this woman felt personally threatened by the weight of all she was hearing about this new evil health care reform. It wasn't so much that she believed the bad stuff was true for certain, but given the dire circumstances of her dh's health, she didn't want to be taking a chance with whatever time remained of his life.

Some of these freaking rightwingers may talk louder than me, but I guarantee I can talk much longer and will be more persuasive. I am going to tighten up my explanations to make them more straight forward and focused, paying close attention to the items that are fabricated to freak people out, so that I can quickly marshall my resources and be ready to do some debunking.

[DeschutesRiver]

1. One more point, closer to home

DH and I have had relatively good health. We are in our fifties now. A few weeks earlier, I had added up how much it would cost annually if both of us were to get ill and go over our separate deductible levels. Between the deductible, annual premium, and out of pocket for any prescriptions (there is a yearly limit too), it would be $22,000 minimum (after that, we still pay a percentage of the costs, and there is a lifetime limit of care on top of that, so it gets worse). Each and every year that both of us were ill. That made his head swim, because it isn't something you dwell upon when you are well. And I pointed out, it isn't something you would be able to handle any better if you were seriously sick or injured, trying to do battle with the insurance company to get what you thought you'd been paying for all these years of hefty premiums.

For some reason, he hadn't focused on the fact that the insurance company could cancel us after/during a devastating illness, and then we might find ourselves with a now pre-existing condition for which we couldn't be insured, not even with the sucky policy with have with BCBS. Poor guy said he had thought & fretted about that every morning since, and finally yesterday, we really hashed out what health reform might mean, starting with Axelrod's email. He isn't a stupid man either, and he has been for health care reform - he just approached it from where he is at, ie relatively healthy, thinking more about how it would help others that had no insurance. And not focusing on the fact that given the right set of facts, this could easily happen to us as well.

It is like we've had no problem walking a mile in someone else's shoes, and recognizing that health care reform is long overdue, but we hadn't focused on the fact that those shoes come in all sizes, including our own.