Who's Next?

“Take two aspirin, go to bed, and call me in the morning.” Isn’t that the age-old advice given to folks by their friendly M.D.? Well, it once was, anyway. There’s a problem with its applicability in today’s world, though: a significant segment of our society has no doctor to call (due to no healthcare) nor a bed to crawl into (due to homelessness). There are many causes for these problems and we’ll explore a few, with your indulgence, in the following paragraphs.

Healthcare issues are generally addressed through one’s employer. It should come as no surprise that the current economic malaise has created a whole new group of unemployed worker bees as the unemployment rate flirts with 10%. It’s a safe bet that a good number of those folks had some sort of medical coverage, but are now without. Cobra and the like? Pretty expensive solutions, considering you’re out of work. And what about your pre-existing condition(s)? They’ll no longer be covered in any new plan you may find yourself affiliated with.

So now you’re out of work with no healthcare. The economy continues to swoon and, should you be fortunate enough to “own” your home, you find yourself upside-down, financially. Foreclosure is a definite possibility. And you renters are not much better off because your cash flow is substantially curtailed, too, and the prospect of homelessness becomes all too real.

OK, so now you’re out of work with no place to call home and no way to handle health issues that may now spring up due to less-than-desirable living conditions. A job (even if one can be found) becomes more difficult to land because many positions require an address on the application and you no longer can provide one. You have little or no money to prepare for an interview (clean clothes, well rested, showered and shaven) and find yourself in this ever tightening spiral that offers little or no hope of relief.

Now what? And therein lies the true challenge. We are now engaged in yet another debate on national healthcare. Should we find a way to provide such a benefit, companies of all kinds suddenly find it cheaper to bring on additional employees as benefit costs go down. Jobs create income that leads to the acquisition of suitable living quarters and pretty soon that spiral is unwinding a bit and the light at the end of the tunnel no longer resembles an oncoming train.

Simple, huh? Nope, no way, not on your life. Because now we become a socialist country with big government and that, my friends, must be avoided at all costs. Or so some would have you believe. Do I favor socialism or big government? No, nor do I believe the terms are interchangeable. And a bigger role of government in looking after the well being of its citizenry is warranted because, quite frankly, nothing else has worked. Will there be graft and waste and fraud? Of course. Name one organization or program that doesn’t suffer similarly at the hands of scalawags and connivers trying to get something for nothing. That is no reason to refrain from reaching out to the overriding majority who, but for the grace of something-or-other, go us. And will it be expensive? A relative term, because we’re all paying now in the form of higher insurance premiums (should we be fortunate enough to have coverage), higher consumer costs to cover those higher premiums for coverage supplied by employers, and the subsidization of “emergency room healthcare” provided to those who have no other choice than to wait until they are in dire straits and then proceed to the nearest ER. I’d like to think that, at the end of the day, we’d be spending a bit less, but have no doubt that we’d be getting a bigger bang for our buck.

Right about now, someone will rise with indignation and shout, “Let ‘em go out and take care of themselves like I’ve done all my life.” Let me tell you something, my friend: you are not so good or so smart or so omnipotent that you have succeeded on your own. You have had help and opportunity from countless sources and to disown their contribution is the height of elitism and snobbery regardless of what rung of the economic ladder you may occupy. No one...NO ONE...has made it on their own and to turn a blind eye on those that, for one reason or other, require some assistance from others enjoying a greater degree of success is a shameful act. We are the greatest country in the world and no man, woman, nor child should face a day without the availability of shelter and medical attention. That is not Republican, nor Democratic, nor socialist, nor liberal, nor conservative. It is humanitarian and we should all rush to crowd into that tent.