10. Fear

I have a lot of fear in me these days. I’ve articulated a bunch of it in these pages before, but in light of the current state of the world and in particular the upcoming election in my country, I’m going to hash a bit of it out here. I’m going to do my best to not turn this into an outright political posting, because this is not the place for it - and I actually want people of all political and religious beliefs to be able to read this without fear of recrimination. For those of us (and our caretakers and loving friends/family) there is enough fear to go around. I’m not going to add to it here, whether we agree or not. But there are pressing issues for on the agenda next week that should be non-partisan and are extremely important. I won’t be silent about them and my belief that they are important enough for you to look outside your normal comfort zone and support. 

To be clear here, I will come out on the liberal side of this argument - but that does not mean there is not a lot on the liberal platform that I don’t agree with. And I suppose, in many cases, we’re all holding our noses as we fill in the forms. I’m tired of that, by the way. I would love to vote one day for someone I really believe in - but that’s going to require a complete overhaul of our two party system, the removal of the electoral college, term limits for every office, a true popular vote primary system and the removal of money from the equation. In doing basic research for this post (gasp) I was confronted with so many lies from both parties and the media that I got a little verklempt (thank you Mike Myers for bringing that word to the common vernacular). This has to change. The people should be reliably informed, and politicians should be held accountable to their words. No matter who you support this coming Tuesday, you should agree with that. Too many people on both sides of the spectrum are going out and voting based on untruths told by the other side. I’m going to do my best not to reiterate any outright lies here, and if I do, I apologize. Many statements get walked back once the general discomfort with them gets articulated - but the saying is the thought, and that’s the reality I see. So, when one of the candidates floats that he’d like to “allow people with similar health situations to be in the same risk pools,” meaning sicker people would have to buy different insurance plans from people who were healthy, I take that at face value, and recognize that this person would be happy to have me have to pay more for less.

So, with that thought in mind, here are my immediate fears that relate to this blog, and how this Tuesday might affect them. The house speaker has stated that the Affordable Care Act is going to get a massive overhaul. Now, I don’t disagree with the concept in general. The ACA is a deeply flawed piece of legislation - partially due to partisan infighting that required changes to be made in order to get it passed. The Republican party has been stating that they will repeal this act since the 2016 election cycle. During that administration several attempts were made to make changes, and they were so anti-humane and seemingly punitive that none of them even passed inside their own party. And since then, eight years later, there has still not been a presentation of what these changes might look like except that sick people should be put into a different insurance pool. So I live in fear, because I live in distrust of these people. These people are not doctors, nurses, psychotherapists or members of the trained medical community. They are business people, lawyers and clerics. And it is clear that they do not believe that the government has any onus in preserving the health and welfare of the populace. And in absence of an articulated plan, I fear the worst. I will always have a pre-existing condition that will require expensive care. The “Project 2025” plan offers proposals that would result in a future in which millions more people go without coverage, pay higher premiums if they have pre-existing conditions, or end up with skimpy health plans that don’t cover benefits they need. I live in fear of my options should the republicans win. Nothing said by any of those party leaders gives me any succor. Again, the UK government has deemed that Leqembi is not going to be covered by the NHS because of a financial risk/benefit. I live in fear that such would be the case here if the anti-care folks win this election.

ACA or not, finances should not be the primary driver of medical innovation. OF COURSE, things cost money - I’m not stupid, but the profit margins here are personal, not purely innovation based. If I truly believed that the high cost of medication funneled right back to the labs where new and better drugs were being designed, I’d support paying for it. But I don’t. I believe people are getting rich on the backs of the ill, and that just sucks.

I need my Social Security money and (eventually) Medicare. This is not an entitlement - it’s something I’m entitled to because I paid into the system that promised me that outcome in return for my money. I live in fear of being ill and poor. Being unable to work, and unable to support myself. Being unable to pay for my medical needs. I’m not looking to get rich by stealing the money of the honest working people of America. I’m looking to recoup my lifetime investment into a program that was created in order to ensure that we could retire and be sustained. I live in fear of what will happen should those that actually refer to this program as an entitlement gain more power and end it, or radically redesign it as they promise to do. 

Again - I am open to change - none of these systems are without flaw, and everything (EVERYTHING) should be reassessed as the times change. I have no problem with that. I have a real problem with folks making unsubstantiated promises - especially when they have shown myriad times that empathy is not high on their list of priorities. I’m also well aware that there are many other issues on the ballot coming up, including religion, LGBTQIA rights, women's rights, the middle east, climate change, the economy (including taxes), crime, the 2nd amendment, the supreme court, education, immigration and the state of our democracy itself. All of these issues (and more, I’m sure) are important - and by no means am I negating that. I could (and often do) pontificate on many of them - I’m just choosing to not address them in this particular forum at this particular time. I have already, and will always, vote for the side that shows empathy and caring towards the nation as a whole. 

Thanks for reading,

Sean