CRISS'S CRITICAL CONCUSSION.
BY MATTHEW LUCAS BECKETT
I couldn't believe it when I opened the letter from the insurance company that had insured me for twenty-six years, as long as I could stay on my parents plan. “Application for coverage DENIED.” I had assumed that since I had been with them since I was born that my application as an independent adult would be a sure thing, but nowhere in the letter did it even mention in passing our long history.
“Criss, what's wrong?” asked my mother, and I realized that my lower jaw was hanging open and quickly closed it.
“They've denied my application for my own coverage.”
“What?” cried both of my parents in unison. “Why?”
I read through the letter very carefully before answering. “There's a lot of fancy language and super technical terms,” I finally reply. “But at its root it appears to be my concussion in seventh grade from that soccer ball to the head, which they list as a 'preexisting condition' and so say they won't cover me.”
“But that's illegal under the new law,” my dad said.
“Not for adults until 2014,” I reminded him. “And if much of our congressional delegation has its way the law will be gone long before that step towards true justice happens.”
As my friend Martha had been dealing with this problem for three years then, I was fairly familiar with it.
“Well, we thought our company would be your best chance, dear,” my mom said. “But it's not the only option.”
She was right about that of course, so I applied to a whole bunch of other companies, but all denied me coverage because of my seventh grade concussion. “But I haven't been a patient in the hospital in thirteen and a half years,” I all but screamed at the representative on the phone line at one of the companies I called for clarification.
“No, but you might be at some point in the future and that's just too big of a financial risk for us to take.”
I asked what the point of health insurance was then? and when he started verbally floundering I breathed a curse and hung up.
“Well,” I said to my parents with a bitter laugh. “I guess I'll just have to stay healthy.”
They both nodded apprehensively, for what else could be said or don?
I managed to follow that plan for a year and three months, but now as I sit in my doctor's office having come in with a great pain in my chest, I hear the dreaded words.
“You have congestive heart failure, Criss.”
“But I'm only twenty-seven,,” I protest, for I have always thought of this as something that happens to old people.
My doctor nods in sympathy. “I know, Criss. It is not unheard of in young people, though, although admittedly unusual. The good news is at your age and in your otherwise good health you're a prime candidate for heart transplant surgery.”
I laugh bitterly. “Yeah, if I hadn't had a concussion in seventh grade and so been unable to retain private insurance as an adult. So, if I don't get treated, how long have I got?”
Tears welling in her eyes, for she has been my family doctor for my whole life, she finally manages to say: “I'll put it this way, Criss. If there's anything you've always dreamed of doing or anywhere you've always dreamed of going, do it and go there now.”
My world collapsed around me, for this is not at all the timing that I had had in mind for my end, not that I'd thought about it much at all, thinking it would be a long way off, but there is nothing I can do about it now.
So, as soon as I can, I arrange two weeks of backpacking in Europe and one week in Asia. My parents and I enjoy all the travel, although my immanent demise is never far from our minds. As they pass out food on our flight back to the states, I feel unimaginable pain in my chest, clutch it, hear my parents start to sob and then I die right in my seat and everything of this world fades and is gone.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
A CALL FOR JUSTICE, MANIFEST OF THEUNINSURED AND UNDER ISURED
Let all who bend and groan beneath a mountain of debt from their medical bills from being under insured or completely uninsured rise up and say “NO MORE!” Let the rich, privileged and powerful be silent, and for once listen to that still small voice in all and each of us that says “justice denied one is justice denied all.” Let those who have the money to pay for insurance but are denied coverage because of a ‘preexisting’ medical condition stand up and say NO MORE. Let all of those whom the business model of health care has failed stand up and tell congress in one voice “ENOUGH TALK. THE TIME FOR DEBATE AND DELAYS IS OVER. THE TIME FOR ACTIONIS NOW.” Let all those for whom a business model does work be silent and listen to their family and friends and neighbors for whom it does not. The House Reform Bill passes the Senate and is signed into law by The President by February Tenth, 2010, or the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah will be dealt upon this land, since destruction comes not from openness but from closed hearts.
Thus sayeth The Lord, The God of Hosts: I hate your mouths that open in praise while your hearts are closed. My children suffer and die every day needlessly, and you quarrel about states rights and money. The love of money is the root of all evil. Those who put profit before people are not my children. Open your hearts to the suffering of those failed by a health system driven by money, and do what is right, and demand your elected leaders do what is right. You have until February Tenth, or the burning sulfur of old shall slay the righteous and the wicked throughout this land.
For The Mouth of The Lord has spoken it.
Obviously some of this is outdated, since The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act are now the law of the land. However, there are still many who oppose these measures and are seeking through legislative and judicial means to undo them. So let me speak primarily to these people for a moment, although of course I also speak to supporters of the new law, as always. In two places on this blog, both independently and as part of my response to my letter from Senator John Cornyn, I have published my letter from Golden Rule Canceling my Health Insurance Coverage they say on their letter because I failed to mention on my application when it asked what major health issues I had had within the past five years that seventeen years earlier I got hit y a car, but the letter also refers directly to the preexisting conditions matter, and when I called the company after receiving this letter I was told that had they known about what happened to me when I was eight years old they would not have issued me a policy when I was twenty-five years old. So, when I hear people talk about undoing the new law, and non of the replacements I have heard proposed by Conservatives even mention the words preexisting conditions, it gives me the impression that those of us with preexisting conditions are simply regarded as not important enough to worry about. In Texas there is an Insurance Risk Pool for people like me, but Texas Law requires that it always be twice as expensive as comparable,private coverage, and even at that the lowest deductible I could get was $1,000, so all of a recent $735 Physical Therapy Bill for some tendonitous in my left arm, and by the way I am left-handed, had to be paid entirely out of pocket. When, at a recent panel discussion on Health Care that I attended, I asked the Conservative on the panel point blank what about those of us with preexisting conditions?, his only solution was to let insurance companies charge everyone Risk Pool Rates, which of course will drive those who consider themselves healthy away, raising rates even more for the rest of us. Which brings me back to the point that to me it seems The Conservative Opposition to the new law indicates that they regard those of us with preexisting health conditions and other barriers to purchasing private insurance under the old system as simply unimportant, which needless to say makes me rather angry. Therefore, I ask everyone who opposes the new law to look and listen carefully to all of those around you, and I suspect almost all of you will find that you know someone whom the old system failed but the new system may not, and I ask you to open your heart and your mind to hear their story and consider how the new law could help them, either immediately or in 2014, and reconsider your position, because those of us with preexisting conditions are Human Beings too, and we have hopes and dreams too, but with the added financial burden of The Risk Pool described above or even worse no insurance at all, either because that cost is unaffordible or because someone lives in a state that has no such program, one major illness or injury could take all of those away, take away our liberty by a medical debt we can never pay, or even take away our very lives.
Thus sayeth The Lord, The God of Hosts: I hate your mouths that open in praise while your hearts are closed. My children suffer and die every day needlessly, and you quarrel about states rights and money. The love of money is the root of all evil. Those who put profit before people are not my children. Open your hearts to the suffering of those failed by a health system driven by money, and do what is right, and demand your elected leaders do what is right. You have until February Tenth, or the burning sulfur of old shall slay the righteous and the wicked throughout this land.
For The Mouth of The Lord has spoken it.
Obviously some of this is outdated, since The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act are now the law of the land. However, there are still many who oppose these measures and are seeking through legislative and judicial means to undo them. So let me speak primarily to these people for a moment, although of course I also speak to supporters of the new law, as always. In two places on this blog, both independently and as part of my response to my letter from Senator John Cornyn, I have published my letter from Golden Rule Canceling my Health Insurance Coverage they say on their letter because I failed to mention on my application when it asked what major health issues I had had within the past five years that seventeen years earlier I got hit y a car, but the letter also refers directly to the preexisting conditions matter, and when I called the company after receiving this letter I was told that had they known about what happened to me when I was eight years old they would not have issued me a policy when I was twenty-five years old. So, when I hear people talk about undoing the new law, and non of the replacements I have heard proposed by Conservatives even mention the words preexisting conditions, it gives me the impression that those of us with preexisting conditions are simply regarded as not important enough to worry about. In Texas there is an Insurance Risk Pool for people like me, but Texas Law requires that it always be twice as expensive as comparable,private coverage, and even at that the lowest deductible I could get was $1,000, so all of a recent $735 Physical Therapy Bill for some tendonitous in my left arm, and by the way I am left-handed, had to be paid entirely out of pocket. When, at a recent panel discussion on Health Care that I attended, I asked the Conservative on the panel point blank what about those of us with preexisting conditions?, his only solution was to let insurance companies charge everyone Risk Pool Rates, which of course will drive those who consider themselves healthy away, raising rates even more for the rest of us. Which brings me back to the point that to me it seems The Conservative Opposition to the new law indicates that they regard those of us with preexisting health conditions and other barriers to purchasing private insurance under the old system as simply unimportant, which needless to say makes me rather angry. Therefore, I ask everyone who opposes the new law to look and listen carefully to all of those around you, and I suspect almost all of you will find that you know someone whom the old system failed but the new system may not, and I ask you to open your heart and your mind to hear their story and consider how the new law could help them, either immediately or in 2014, and reconsider your position, because those of us with preexisting conditions are Human Beings too, and we have hopes and dreams too, but with the added financial burden of The Risk Pool described above or even worse no insurance at all, either because that cost is unaffordible or because someone lives in a state that has no such program, one major illness or injury could take all of those away, take away our liberty by a medical debt we can never pay, or even take away our very lives.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
CUT OFF AT THE KNEES, THE TRUE NATURE OF 'COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM'
CUT OFF AT THE KNEES, THE STORY OF A MENTAL COLLAPSE AND THE TRUTH OF 'COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE'
It was the biggest headache I'd ever had. Or that's what I thought at the time. When it persisted, Susan, my wife, insisted that we go to the emergency room.
“Sam,” she said. “This isn't normal. There could be something seriously wrong.”
Well, it turned out there was something seriously wrong.
“You have inflammation of the brain,” my doctor informed me. “If untreated, it could prove fatal, although the more likely outcome is to be locked inside yourself in a coma like state, more or less, although there will be periods when you are aware of what's going on but will still be unable to participate.”
My world was collapsing around me, I thought death sounded like the preferable alternative to that, although since I'd just met Susan a year ago and we'd only been married for three months, I hadn't really planned on that either.
“Sam,” my doctor, Dr. Lucy Collestub brought me out of my dark musings. “It's completely treatable, so none of that will happen. The new treatment now available has a very high success rate. I'm just obligated to let you know all possibilities.”
“So how much will the treatment cost,” I ask. “Because I'm sure my insurance won't pay for it if it's a new treatment.”
“They have to,” said Susan. “It's the law now.”
“So it is,” I say, suddenly remembering the new law that puts the patient before profits. “So what is the treatment, Dr. Collestub?”
“It's Lucy,Sam. We've known each other too long for that kind of formality. The treatment is two-fold. We'll operate as soon as possible to relieve the swelling itself. But then there is a six month series of. . .treatments, for want of a better term, to ensure that it does not return. We should schedule that surgery for as soon as possible.”
We ended up scheduling the surgery for exactly three weeks from that day, with the 'treatments' to start a week later. But then, a week and two days before the surgery, I got the letter from my two Republican Senators and one Republican House Member.
“Dear Sam,” it read, for I had made substantial enough donations to all of their campaigns that we were mutually on a first name basis. “We regret to inform you that your surgery and follow up treatment have been canceled. Since they would not have been paid for before this new law, and we feel the new law is an illegal one, we are preventing treatment under it where possible so that when we undo it there will not be people that had things covered that they shouldn't have so that there will be no shocks. Please destroy this letter as soon as you've read it so that this information doesn't get out. Sincerely...”
I stopped. There was nothing sincere about any of this,, except that when I called Lucy and the hospital they confirmed that there had been an order from our Congressional Delegation to cancel my treatment that apparently had the force of law even though it was just them, and like that my fate was sealed. I couldn't believe it. I was a lifelong Republican and had supported all of them financially and at the voting booth very well and numerous times, yet now when I had a problem, they were cutting me off at the knees to ensure that the new law on health insurance did not gain sight among the people as beneficial. For the first time I myself began to see how beneficial it could be and to regret having railed so against it myself when it was just 'those lazy people that don't want to work' who had wanted it, for I had worked my whole life and was certainly not lazy. I began to consider that maybe many who would benefit from this law were not lazy, and might just have preexisting health conditions like my concussion of many years ago, which was why brain treatment would not have been covered under the old law, and for other reasons beyond their control and that a law saying insurance companies can't do that is a good idea.
On one of the days when I was having such musings, I felt a great pain in my entire head, particularly my face, and suddenly found that I could no longer speak or even blink voluntarily. During the last few weeks, Susan and Lucy and I have tried repeatedly to contact our members of Congress to get them to reconsider, or to get a court to overrule them, all without any result. On the day that my brain collapsed to all outside interactions except occasionally being able to type, as I am now typing my story, we received word that one judge had sided with us, but the other two judges on the panel had declined to hear the case, so even that was not an actual ruling in our favor, not that it would matter now anyway, for the treatment was only preventative, not curative once this has happened. So I'm locked inside myself for life except for brief periods when I can type as I'm typing this story, but this ends this story, which is good since this period of even being able to type I can feel coming to. . .
My husband intended to type 'an end' here, but his hands seized up before he could. Where is your compassion now, conservatism?
She finishes with an unintelligible curse, and that's the end of this story as it was received.
It was the biggest headache I'd ever had. Or that's what I thought at the time. When it persisted, Susan, my wife, insisted that we go to the emergency room.
“Sam,” she said. “This isn't normal. There could be something seriously wrong.”
Well, it turned out there was something seriously wrong.
“You have inflammation of the brain,” my doctor informed me. “If untreated, it could prove fatal, although the more likely outcome is to be locked inside yourself in a coma like state, more or less, although there will be periods when you are aware of what's going on but will still be unable to participate.”
My world was collapsing around me, I thought death sounded like the preferable alternative to that, although since I'd just met Susan a year ago and we'd only been married for three months, I hadn't really planned on that either.
“Sam,” my doctor, Dr. Lucy Collestub brought me out of my dark musings. “It's completely treatable, so none of that will happen. The new treatment now available has a very high success rate. I'm just obligated to let you know all possibilities.”
“So how much will the treatment cost,” I ask. “Because I'm sure my insurance won't pay for it if it's a new treatment.”
“They have to,” said Susan. “It's the law now.”
“So it is,” I say, suddenly remembering the new law that puts the patient before profits. “So what is the treatment, Dr. Collestub?”
“It's Lucy,Sam. We've known each other too long for that kind of formality. The treatment is two-fold. We'll operate as soon as possible to relieve the swelling itself. But then there is a six month series of. . .treatments, for want of a better term, to ensure that it does not return. We should schedule that surgery for as soon as possible.”
We ended up scheduling the surgery for exactly three weeks from that day, with the 'treatments' to start a week later. But then, a week and two days before the surgery, I got the letter from my two Republican Senators and one Republican House Member.
“Dear Sam,” it read, for I had made substantial enough donations to all of their campaigns that we were mutually on a first name basis. “We regret to inform you that your surgery and follow up treatment have been canceled. Since they would not have been paid for before this new law, and we feel the new law is an illegal one, we are preventing treatment under it where possible so that when we undo it there will not be people that had things covered that they shouldn't have so that there will be no shocks. Please destroy this letter as soon as you've read it so that this information doesn't get out. Sincerely...”
I stopped. There was nothing sincere about any of this,, except that when I called Lucy and the hospital they confirmed that there had been an order from our Congressional Delegation to cancel my treatment that apparently had the force of law even though it was just them, and like that my fate was sealed. I couldn't believe it. I was a lifelong Republican and had supported all of them financially and at the voting booth very well and numerous times, yet now when I had a problem, they were cutting me off at the knees to ensure that the new law on health insurance did not gain sight among the people as beneficial. For the first time I myself began to see how beneficial it could be and to regret having railed so against it myself when it was just 'those lazy people that don't want to work' who had wanted it, for I had worked my whole life and was certainly not lazy. I began to consider that maybe many who would benefit from this law were not lazy, and might just have preexisting health conditions like my concussion of many years ago, which was why brain treatment would not have been covered under the old law, and for other reasons beyond their control and that a law saying insurance companies can't do that is a good idea.
On one of the days when I was having such musings, I felt a great pain in my entire head, particularly my face, and suddenly found that I could no longer speak or even blink voluntarily. During the last few weeks, Susan and Lucy and I have tried repeatedly to contact our members of Congress to get them to reconsider, or to get a court to overrule them, all without any result. On the day that my brain collapsed to all outside interactions except occasionally being able to type, as I am now typing my story, we received word that one judge had sided with us, but the other two judges on the panel had declined to hear the case, so even that was not an actual ruling in our favor, not that it would matter now anyway, for the treatment was only preventative, not curative once this has happened. So I'm locked inside myself for life except for brief periods when I can type as I'm typing this story, but this ends this story, which is good since this period of even being able to type I can feel coming to. . .
My husband intended to type 'an end' here, but his hands seized up before he could. Where is your compassion now, conservatism?
She finishes with an unintelligible curse, and that's the end of this story as it was received.
Friday, March 11, 2011
STOP THE BREATHING MACHINE,THE REPEAL OF THE RIGHT TO BASIC HEALTH CARE
THE REPEALING OF THE RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE.
The mood in The G.O.P. Headquarters after the vote was jubilant.
“We did it,” said the Minority leader of The House. “We undid Obama Care.”
“Yes,”chimed in his whip. “Good buy to government run Health Care.”
“Amen,”chorused another. “So do we go for Medicare or Medicaid next?”
“Ultimately both,' said the minority leader of the Senate. “But we'll have to turn the American people against each in turn just as we turned them against this before we even bring either up as things to undo. We must tread carefully, for both of those have taken root and become ingrained in people's consciousness and so will be much harder to undo, but we will eventually undo all but private sector run Health Care, since that's the only sector that can really do anything right.”
Everyone there raised a glass to that, and the party went on.
Meanwhile,in New York City, a patient was being prepped for heart surgery when the news of the repeal came through. Five minutes after the news came through, the doctor doing the surgery received a phone call. The staff preparing the patient and the patient himself, the single father of three young children, heard the doctor arguing with the person o the phone for some time, although they could not understand the words. Finally, with one last angry shout, the doctor slammed down the receiver and stormed into the operating room.
“Stop the prep,” she said, to everyone's shock. “His insurance says this is a no go.”
“They can't,” protested the man. “The law now says. . .”
The doctor checked her watch.
“As of eight minutes ago, they can,” she said bitterly. “Because that's the time that Congress repealed decent, affordable health care for all ?Americans.”
“But without this surgery I'll die, said the man. “And then who will take care of my babies? I have no family of any kind to take them.”
“Probably the state,” she said with a humorless smile. “The same state that says what your insurance company just did is okey.”
In New Bronswick New Jersey,, a patient was in the midst of a cancer treatment when her insurance company called and canceled her treatment.
Both patients died before the week was out.
“Well,” aid the minority leader of the Senate at a subsequent victory party. “Our business donors have certainly been expressing their appreciation for undoing mandatory medical care providing, and there have been no adverse effects. No one who matters has died or been permanently incapacitated, as SOME predicted, and the voters certainly look to be happy with us come November, at least the ones that matter, and of course the nobodies that do suffer won't be voting if they're dead or unable to function, so overall it is a win-win for all who really matter. Cheers.”
He raised his glass and all drank deeply to his toast.
The mood in The G.O.P. Headquarters after the vote was jubilant.
“We did it,” said the Minority leader of The House. “We undid Obama Care.”
“Yes,”chimed in his whip. “Good buy to government run Health Care.”
“Amen,”chorused another. “So do we go for Medicare or Medicaid next?”
“Ultimately both,' said the minority leader of the Senate. “But we'll have to turn the American people against each in turn just as we turned them against this before we even bring either up as things to undo. We must tread carefully, for both of those have taken root and become ingrained in people's consciousness and so will be much harder to undo, but we will eventually undo all but private sector run Health Care, since that's the only sector that can really do anything right.”
Everyone there raised a glass to that, and the party went on.
Meanwhile,in New York City, a patient was being prepped for heart surgery when the news of the repeal came through. Five minutes after the news came through, the doctor doing the surgery received a phone call. The staff preparing the patient and the patient himself, the single father of three young children, heard the doctor arguing with the person o the phone for some time, although they could not understand the words. Finally, with one last angry shout, the doctor slammed down the receiver and stormed into the operating room.
“Stop the prep,” she said, to everyone's shock. “His insurance says this is a no go.”
“They can't,” protested the man. “The law now says. . .”
The doctor checked her watch.
“As of eight minutes ago, they can,” she said bitterly. “Because that's the time that Congress repealed decent, affordable health care for all ?Americans.”
“But without this surgery I'll die, said the man. “And then who will take care of my babies? I have no family of any kind to take them.”
“Probably the state,” she said with a humorless smile. “The same state that says what your insurance company just did is okey.”
In New Bronswick New Jersey,, a patient was in the midst of a cancer treatment when her insurance company called and canceled her treatment.
Both patients died before the week was out.
“Well,” aid the minority leader of the Senate at a subsequent victory party. “Our business donors have certainly been expressing their appreciation for undoing mandatory medical care providing, and there have been no adverse effects. No one who matters has died or been permanently incapacitated, as SOME predicted, and the voters certainly look to be happy with us come November, at least the ones that matter, and of course the nobodies that do suffer won't be voting if they're dead or unable to function, so overall it is a win-win for all who really matter. Cheers.”
He raised his glass and all drank deeply to his toast.
Friday, March 4, 2011
ONCE ONE IS BORN, CONSERVATIVES DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT HUMAN LIFE
FROM THE WOMB TO THE CRADLE, OR THE GRAVE
BY MATTHEW LUCAS BECKETT.
I thought that I would always look back upon the day Joan told me she was pregnant as one of the happiest days of my life. We'd been trying to have a baby for three years. Then, one day near the end of June,2011, she came home from the doctor's office and said, “Great news, Sam. It's not the flu, it's morning sickness. I'm pregnant!” We were both so happy we danced all night, although of course we did not drink. Looking back, I should have known there would be a curve ball, because there always has been in my life.
At Joan's six month check-up, the doctor gave us the grim news. “The fetus is sick,” he said. I couldn't even begin to pronounce the name of the disease she said it had.
“What does that mean?” Joan asked before I could get the words out.
“It means,” said the doctor “that the baby if it is born at all will only live at most a few hours after birth and those few hours will be excruciating for it, because this disease is incurable, extremely painful and always terminal. I should also mention that if you do come to term there may be complications for you as well, Joan.”
“What kind of complications?” we both asked as one.
“It could be nothing, or it could be anything from infertility to terminal for you as well, Joan. I'll leave you two alone to discuss your options.”
Not that there seemed to us to be much to discuss. If the baby was not even certain to come to term and if it did it would die after only a few excruciating hours, and Joan might also die.
“We've decided that I'll have an abortion,” Joan told the doctor when he returned. The words cost us both a lot, given the past three years, but if the baby would only live at most a few agonizing hours and there was no cure for the disease and Joan might also die, and even if she didn't we might never be able to try to have a baby again, there was not a good option, but this was the least bad. At least, that's what we thought.
“There's been a federal injunction against this abortion,” we were told when we arrived at the clinic the day Joan's pregnancy was to be terminated.
“A what?” I asked, dumbfounded, sure that I must have misheard.
“Congress passed what they called an emergency bill last night forbidding Joan from having an abortion,” he said.
Questions of all sorts flooded my mind, the first of which were “How did they know?” and “What business of theirs is our family tragedy?”
“Well, since you are on Medicaid,” said the abortion provider, “Congress asserts that it has the right to say how federal dollars are spent. As for how they found out, I couldn't say.”
But I suddenly realized that I could. “That stranger in the lobby when we saw Doctor Travers,” I said to Joan. “He must have been an agent of the new 'Decency and Morality Police Act'. For people that used to talk about keeping government out of people's lives, this Conservative Congress is sure intrusive into people's personal affairs.” This was not by any means the first of these that I had noticed since January of this year, but it was by far the most extreme.
“What options do we have?” Joan asked the doctor.
“None,” he said.
“None,” agreed the lawyer we contacted next. “We could sue, but the legal process takes longer than the duration of your pregnancy, Joan, even without any bumps, and there are always bumps. You could write to your members of Congress, urging them to lift this injunction, but otherwise...” he trailed off and shook his head.
I knew that both of our senators would have voted against such an absurd and intrusive bill anyway, but I did write to our house member, who wrote back to say that the sanctity of life must be preserved above all.
I wrote back, “You do understand that if this baby is born at all it will only live a few excruciating hours and Joan could also die?”
His response isn't even worth repeating, but I wrote back, “and of course there will be no problem with Medicaid paying for any and all treatment relative to the pregnancy and related matters after the birth?” and I never heard from him again.
As Joan entered her seventh and eighth months, she began to experience great bouts of severe pain, and as the final month of her pregnancy began, she was confined to bed 24/7. Her medical bills began piling up, for there were many that Medicaid refused to pay, and I got no satisfaction from writing to our representative either, no response at all. Yet just enough was paid for to keep Joan alive and pregnant until the day of delivery. One day, near the end of January, 2012, Joan went into labor.
We rushed to the hospital, where, a few hours later, our baby was born, covered in blood and screaming in agony. Soon, Joan was also screaming, as the blood continued to flow from the birth canal.
“Do something for her!” I screamed at the doctor after ten minutes of total inaction on his part.
He faltered. “Sam, I can't. There's been another federal injunction, saying once the baby is born any and all medical expenses must be paid for by you or her, no Medicaid money, and...”
“And we don't have that kind of money and everyone involved knows it,” I finish. “So they forbid us from ending an incredibly high risk pregnancy to deliver a baby who has been in agony since birth and is already starting to turn blue, but once the baby's born we're out in the cold?”
The doctor stares and shakes his head helplessly. “Under the system briefly in place a couple of years ago, insurance might have been different, but Medicaid is a federal program, so the federal government can make the rules as they see fit, and there's nothing we can do until the next election.”
The baby gives one final scream and then goes stiff and gray. Moments later, I hear Joan's death cry and my heart stops beating.
“Until death do us part,” I murmur to myself. “But it shouldn't have been this soon. As for the baby, I guess they only care about it from the womb to the cradle, even if the cradle is a grave.”
The doctor patted my arm in sympathy, then left me alone to mourn my wife of fifteen years and love of my life since childhood and the child I never got to know at all, since her only cradle was to be a grave.
BY MATTHEW LUCAS BECKETT.
I thought that I would always look back upon the day Joan told me she was pregnant as one of the happiest days of my life. We'd been trying to have a baby for three years. Then, one day near the end of June,2011, she came home from the doctor's office and said, “Great news, Sam. It's not the flu, it's morning sickness. I'm pregnant!” We were both so happy we danced all night, although of course we did not drink. Looking back, I should have known there would be a curve ball, because there always has been in my life.
At Joan's six month check-up, the doctor gave us the grim news. “The fetus is sick,” he said. I couldn't even begin to pronounce the name of the disease she said it had.
“What does that mean?” Joan asked before I could get the words out.
“It means,” said the doctor “that the baby if it is born at all will only live at most a few hours after birth and those few hours will be excruciating for it, because this disease is incurable, extremely painful and always terminal. I should also mention that if you do come to term there may be complications for you as well, Joan.”
“What kind of complications?” we both asked as one.
“It could be nothing, or it could be anything from infertility to terminal for you as well, Joan. I'll leave you two alone to discuss your options.”
Not that there seemed to us to be much to discuss. If the baby was not even certain to come to term and if it did it would die after only a few excruciating hours, and Joan might also die.
“We've decided that I'll have an abortion,” Joan told the doctor when he returned. The words cost us both a lot, given the past three years, but if the baby would only live at most a few agonizing hours and there was no cure for the disease and Joan might also die, and even if she didn't we might never be able to try to have a baby again, there was not a good option, but this was the least bad. At least, that's what we thought.
“There's been a federal injunction against this abortion,” we were told when we arrived at the clinic the day Joan's pregnancy was to be terminated.
“A what?” I asked, dumbfounded, sure that I must have misheard.
“Congress passed what they called an emergency bill last night forbidding Joan from having an abortion,” he said.
Questions of all sorts flooded my mind, the first of which were “How did they know?” and “What business of theirs is our family tragedy?”
“Well, since you are on Medicaid,” said the abortion provider, “Congress asserts that it has the right to say how federal dollars are spent. As for how they found out, I couldn't say.”
But I suddenly realized that I could. “That stranger in the lobby when we saw Doctor Travers,” I said to Joan. “He must have been an agent of the new 'Decency and Morality Police Act'. For people that used to talk about keeping government out of people's lives, this Conservative Congress is sure intrusive into people's personal affairs.” This was not by any means the first of these that I had noticed since January of this year, but it was by far the most extreme.
“What options do we have?” Joan asked the doctor.
“None,” he said.
“None,” agreed the lawyer we contacted next. “We could sue, but the legal process takes longer than the duration of your pregnancy, Joan, even without any bumps, and there are always bumps. You could write to your members of Congress, urging them to lift this injunction, but otherwise...” he trailed off and shook his head.
I knew that both of our senators would have voted against such an absurd and intrusive bill anyway, but I did write to our house member, who wrote back to say that the sanctity of life must be preserved above all.
I wrote back, “You do understand that if this baby is born at all it will only live a few excruciating hours and Joan could also die?”
His response isn't even worth repeating, but I wrote back, “and of course there will be no problem with Medicaid paying for any and all treatment relative to the pregnancy and related matters after the birth?” and I never heard from him again.
As Joan entered her seventh and eighth months, she began to experience great bouts of severe pain, and as the final month of her pregnancy began, she was confined to bed 24/7. Her medical bills began piling up, for there were many that Medicaid refused to pay, and I got no satisfaction from writing to our representative either, no response at all. Yet just enough was paid for to keep Joan alive and pregnant until the day of delivery. One day, near the end of January, 2012, Joan went into labor.
We rushed to the hospital, where, a few hours later, our baby was born, covered in blood and screaming in agony. Soon, Joan was also screaming, as the blood continued to flow from the birth canal.
“Do something for her!” I screamed at the doctor after ten minutes of total inaction on his part.
He faltered. “Sam, I can't. There's been another federal injunction, saying once the baby is born any and all medical expenses must be paid for by you or her, no Medicaid money, and...”
“And we don't have that kind of money and everyone involved knows it,” I finish. “So they forbid us from ending an incredibly high risk pregnancy to deliver a baby who has been in agony since birth and is already starting to turn blue, but once the baby's born we're out in the cold?”
The doctor stares and shakes his head helplessly. “Under the system briefly in place a couple of years ago, insurance might have been different, but Medicaid is a federal program, so the federal government can make the rules as they see fit, and there's nothing we can do until the next election.”
The baby gives one final scream and then goes stiff and gray. Moments later, I hear Joan's death cry and my heart stops beating.
“Until death do us part,” I murmur to myself. “But it shouldn't have been this soon. As for the baby, I guess they only care about it from the womb to the cradle, even if the cradle is a grave.”
The doctor patted my arm in sympathy, then left me alone to mourn my wife of fifteen years and love of my life since childhood and the child I never got to know at all, since her only cradle was to be a grave.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
WHO CARES IF SICK, POOR KIDS ARE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES?
SICK POOR KIDS AN ENDANGERECSPECIES? WHO CARES?
BY
MATTHEW LUCAS BECKETT
At the capital building of Texas, The Republican controlled House of Representatives met in a closed door session and was gaveled to order by The Speaker.
“Our state faces a budget shortfall of almost a quarter trillion dollars,” he said. “We must have a balanced budget, and since it would be a mortal sin to even discuss raising taxes, we must cut somewhere. Cutting from the top would cost us campaign contributions, so we must cut from the bottom, since they give no campaign contributions anyway.”
“So,” interrupted The Democratic Minority Leader, his conscience not allowing him to remain silent any longer. “You would balance the budget by taking away poor children's right to see a doctor, further endangering those already most at risk if they get sick?”
“It's not like the Human Race is endanger of going extinct,” said The Chair of The Appropriations Committee. “If a few children whose parents refuse to shoulder their responsibility to care for their children when their children are sick die, so be it. It won't cause our species to go extinct.”
“The Human Species no,” came the retort of The Ranking Democrat of The Health and Human Services Committee. “But poor children are becoming something of an endangered subspecies within The Human Species, and taking away their only option for getting Medical Care except for Emergency Room Care, at which point it it is often too late, will further endanger them.”
“Do their parents contribute to our campaigns?” asked The Speaker..
“Of course not,” replied the other. “Their barely scraping by for their own families needs.”
“Are they contributing significantly to society?”
“That depends on your definition of contributing,” replied the other. “Financially, of course not. But in other ways. . .”
“Then who cares even if sick,poor kids are an endangered species? Who cares if they go totally extinct? It would teach their parents to do their jobs and take care of their own, so let it be so if it is so. Who cares about sick, poor kids?”
“I do,” said The Minority Leader, standing.
“So do I,” said another high Ranking Democrat, standing as well.
One by one, every Democrat in the room and a few highly Religious Republicans stood, the last reluctant to break from their party but feeling from their Consciences that their professed Faith compelled them to do so if it was to a Faith of anything more than lip service, a Faith of any real substance.
Even with these defections, however, there were still enough Republican votes in The House to force it through, and so it passed, went to the senate where it passed with even less vocal opposition, even though every single Democrat and a few very Christian Republicans voted against it, and then it was signed by The Governor with no opposition but great fanfare.
“Well,” said The Minority Leader. “I guess that we can add sick, poor children to the endangered species list, at least here in Texas and in the mood sweeping the nation soon the rest of the nation as well.”
His senate counterpart nodded. “They'll be extinct in less than ten years if this keeps up, and it shows no signs of abating.”
All nodded somberly, not knowing how to change this trend, even though they knew they should make the effort.
ENDANGERED CHILDREN JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE POOR AND SICK? HOW ISTHAT LIVING UP TO ANY OF OUR IDEALS? THINK ON IT, AND THINK WELL. HERE I END.
BY
MATTHEW LUCAS BECKETT
At the capital building of Texas, The Republican controlled House of Representatives met in a closed door session and was gaveled to order by The Speaker.
“Our state faces a budget shortfall of almost a quarter trillion dollars,” he said. “We must have a balanced budget, and since it would be a mortal sin to even discuss raising taxes, we must cut somewhere. Cutting from the top would cost us campaign contributions, so we must cut from the bottom, since they give no campaign contributions anyway.”
“So,” interrupted The Democratic Minority Leader, his conscience not allowing him to remain silent any longer. “You would balance the budget by taking away poor children's right to see a doctor, further endangering those already most at risk if they get sick?”
“It's not like the Human Race is endanger of going extinct,” said The Chair of The Appropriations Committee. “If a few children whose parents refuse to shoulder their responsibility to care for their children when their children are sick die, so be it. It won't cause our species to go extinct.”
“The Human Species no,” came the retort of The Ranking Democrat of The Health and Human Services Committee. “But poor children are becoming something of an endangered subspecies within The Human Species, and taking away their only option for getting Medical Care except for Emergency Room Care, at which point it it is often too late, will further endanger them.”
“Do their parents contribute to our campaigns?” asked The Speaker..
“Of course not,” replied the other. “Their barely scraping by for their own families needs.”
“Are they contributing significantly to society?”
“That depends on your definition of contributing,” replied the other. “Financially, of course not. But in other ways. . .”
“Then who cares even if sick,poor kids are an endangered species? Who cares if they go totally extinct? It would teach their parents to do their jobs and take care of their own, so let it be so if it is so. Who cares about sick, poor kids?”
“I do,” said The Minority Leader, standing.
“So do I,” said another high Ranking Democrat, standing as well.
One by one, every Democrat in the room and a few highly Religious Republicans stood, the last reluctant to break from their party but feeling from their Consciences that their professed Faith compelled them to do so if it was to a Faith of anything more than lip service, a Faith of any real substance.
Even with these defections, however, there were still enough Republican votes in The House to force it through, and so it passed, went to the senate where it passed with even less vocal opposition, even though every single Democrat and a few very Christian Republicans voted against it, and then it was signed by The Governor with no opposition but great fanfare.
“Well,” said The Minority Leader. “I guess that we can add sick, poor children to the endangered species list, at least here in Texas and in the mood sweeping the nation soon the rest of the nation as well.”
His senate counterpart nodded. “They'll be extinct in less than ten years if this keeps up, and it shows no signs of abating.”
All nodded somberly, not knowing how to change this trend, even though they knew they should make the effort.
ENDANGERED CHILDREN JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE POOR AND SICK? HOW ISTHAT LIVING UP TO ANY OF OUR IDEALS? THINK ON IT, AND THINK WELL. HERE I END.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)