A Friend Stopped By | 10/15/2009 5:00 am
Fools Rush In, by E.D. Hill
How to fix the health-care crisis in baby steps …
Editor’s Note: Emmy Award-winning journalist E.D. Hill is a nationally known TV and radio host and author. She spent the past ten years hosting several daily programs on Fox News Channel and was Bill O’Reilly’s sidekick on The Radio Factor, heard on 400 stations. She currently hosts "Good Day" with E.D. Hill on americaswebradio.com Tuesdays and Thursdays 8 - 9 AM EST. E.D. and her husband have eight children and pets too numerous to mention. She splits time between their ranch in Texas and the East Coast. You can contact E.D. at hillfriends.com.
Have you ever had a friend who you thought was tried and true until, one day, with a sweet smile and earnest eyes, she asks you to become the chairperson of some gala? She will, she solemnly promises you, help in every way. Please, be a doll and help her out. It’ll be easy! I had a friend like that. She’d just been through the wringer with a scum-sucking, philandering, dweeb of a now-ex-husband and I wanted to help. "OK," I said, as the word "sucker" began to appear on my forehead like Harry Potter’s scar.
| The general complaining we heard from people about their health care 18 months ago was much like general complaints about our own mothers. |
I’ve been naïve about a lot of things in my life. I had no preparation for what was I was about to undertake. I’ve always had an aversion to what I consider wasteful spending at events that purportedly have the purpose of raising as much money as possible to fund a worthy project. I decided the entire event from top to bottom needed to be done differently than the way they’d done it the past 25 years. I devised what I thought was a brilliant, inexpensive plan. The outcry was deafening. People liked things the way they’d always been. Sure, they thought it was a good idea to try to cut costs — to an extent — but they didn’t want the whole thing upturned in one swoosh. Which leads me to our federal government. Odd jump, I know, but stay with me.
Everyone is wringing their hands about how to change the entire health-care system. Eleven million to 15 million people (according to most high and low estimates) are chronically uninsured. They need help. So why can’t the government focus on those who are the most in need? In the 1991 comedy "What About Bob?" Bill Murray portrays Bob Wiley, a multiphobic man who stalks his psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin, after Marvin gives him a copy of his new book, Baby Steps, and leaves on vacation. Murray uses the "baby step method" — baby steps to get on the bus, baby steps down the aisle, baby steps … — to get to Marvin’s vacation home in New Hampshire. I like baby steps. They’re safe and small. They give children practice at a very important task. After mastering baby steps they are ready to walk, even run. So why can’t the government take baby steps?
The government likes things BIG. Medicare is a government-funded and -run social insurance program. (Former President Harry Truman was the first beneficiary. Why is it politicians always jump to the front of the line?) Its own 2008 report assumes funds will be gone by 2019. Medicaid, the state-run program for low-income residents, faces funding problems and relies on money from the federal government. Both programs are part of U.S. Social Security, which, by dollar amount, is the largest government program in the world and the costliest item in the federal budget. State governments need help funding burgeoning unemployment programs. I will not argue that these programs are unnecessary; however, they rarely help correct existing problems and are inefficient.
Read more about: A Friend Stopped By, Barack Obama, E.D. Hill, Government, Health, Health Care Reform, Medicaid, medicare, Spending
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122 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
My prayers are with her and her family.
Amy, PennDragon Studios
simpletownUSA.com
My prayers are with her and her family.
Amy, PennDragon Studios
simpletownUSA.com
Phyllis, besides the gratuitous put down of E.D.’s opinion, you failed to enumerate in any way why you feel that she "doesn’t know a lot about our health care crisis".
Government run programs are overwhelmingly failures. That is not an issue up for discussion, it is a fact.
Any disability is a silent level of racism in The USA regarding health care. Because the state just uses you as a medical experiment because most state plans are HMO’s.
Amy, PennDragon Studios
simpletownUSA.com
E.D. you are completely missing the point of the current administration’s attempts at health care reform. It ISN’T only about those who don’t have any health insurance coverage. Do you have any idea the millions of people who DO have insurance coverage that have to go without medical care because they can’t afford to pay their deductible. They are insured, employer pays or they pay partially for it and STILL can’t get sick because they have a $1500 or $3500 deductible they have to reach first before insurance pays anything.
And those who do have coverage and have no choice and must seek treatment are being denied coverage for cancer treatments and other deadly conditions. There are millions of families filing bankruptcy (there goes another one) because they have to pay for their medical bills out of pocket because their insurance company won’t cover them. Millions of people E.D. who have jobs, pay their bills, have coverage and they still don’t have health care, what does that tell you? (as I typed that, another family just filed for bankruptcy) I’m not kidding, statistics bare me out on this.
And you addressed Medicare. It’s Medicare, Medicaid and the V.A. medical services and hospitals that need desperately to be overhauled. Our entire way of looking at medical care is antiquated by most standards of the world. We are lagging woefully behind other nations. And your suggestion is that we take "baby steps?" It’s been close to 60 years of one politician after another attempting to provide the type of universal healthcare plan our country needs and your response is to slow down and take "baby steps"
I think you are insulting and demeaning on this topic. And I would argue the millions of people who have gone broke, lost their homes because of debt and worst of all, lost a loved one would not take kindly to hearing you say our President should simply take "baby steps" when it comes to healthcare reform. Essentially, 60 years is a long time, but we can afford to kick the can down the road a little bit more.
Belinda I think were on a roll - another topic we agree on. I am one of those families who has coverage through her job and covers hubby and daughter and we have a family deductible of $3500 - the out of pocket expenses for us this year has put a very big strain on our finances but to go without the coverage I would be filing bankrupcty, just like a family just did.
Yes we need the overhaul but I dont want to see it done wrong after all this time of waiting - I think I like Franks suggestion - make them non profit that will change their outlook pretty quickly.
Let us just get one thing straight; America is NOT "lagging woefully behind other nations" when it comes to health care. Nope, not so. Not one bit of truth to that one. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
If murder and accidents are not factored into the issue, America is then #1 in health care. In other words, things that have nothing to do with the QUALITY of our health care create another statistic.
How many people have saved for a health care crisis? How many have bought newer cars instead? Bigger houses instead?Gone on vacations instead? Had another baby instead? Bought more cosmetics instead? Bought more clothes instead?
Niether this nation, nor any employer is responsible for anyone elses health care. We have the opportunity here to get the BEST that there is. Of course that costs money. But at least you have the opportunity to get the best. With an Obamacare plan, even IF you were to get the money for the best, you would not be allowed to choose your proceedure.
There will be far more deaths, from this plan. Would you rather be broke and alive, or dead? Don’t forget that death tax that will be levied upon your estate after that death either. The FACT is that over 70% of all monies paid for health care is spent in the last 2 years of life. This government is not attempting to make more people live longer so that more money can be spent on the last 2 years of life.
Pull your head out of the sand, that 70% is going to saved by rationing that care and not by enhancing life saving techniques for the elderly.
I sat and watched a Grandfather playing chess with his 10 year old grandson this weekend. I listened to the advice that was given during that game and watched as a young man learned to think. Whatever the cost of that heart operation, the two knee replacements and now prostate cancer treatments, it was worth every dime for just that hour of advice for that young man.
In an Obamacare plan, that 82 year old Grandfather would have been denied the care that has allowed him that hour. How dare anyone attempt to say who is "worthy" of life saving proceedures?
Obamacare means rationing, doctor shortages and loss of choice. There is no way around that, just read the opinions of those that surround Obama, read what they have written.
Only if Global warming was real, then we wouldn’t have to worry about the elderly being sent afloat on ice flows when they have outlived their usefullness. Unfortunately, global warming and our health care crisis are both being used to take over our country and control the citizens.
Don’t do that. You’re not serving yourself or anyone else on this thread any benefit by espousing your slanted and highly incorrect opinions and data. America is indeed lagging behind other nations in the area of healthcare, and given you are on a computer to post your message, that means you have access to the millions and millions of data all over the internet which substantiate this sad reality for our country.
And as for your lecture to Americans who supposedly are irresponsible by not saving for their possible healthcare issues. That 82 year old grandfather you spoke of, the one with a 10 year old grandson (odd, sure you didn’t mean great grandson?) if we were to use your rationale, the millions of people who are elderly and on medicare should have their coverage terminated. Why should the federal government pay for an 82 year old man or woman’s healthcare needs? They should have saved their money and prepared for the worst.
The woman who works as a clerk at McDonald’s who is diagnosed with breast cancer. How dare she not have saved up $200,000 to cover her treatments. And that police officer and his family, the one with the kid who has multiple sclerosis, why should the government pay for his kid’s treatments, medical equipment? He’s a police officer for God’s sake and we know how wealthy they are, surely he could afford to cover the costs over and above what his insurance won’t pay. The college student who is unemployed but was stricken with an illness that caused total blindness, why should our tax dollars go toward helping them out.
These aren’t random 2 or 3 incidents out of millions, these are MILLIONS of identical cases. Millions of your fellow Americans are stuck and in need of health insurance. And Millions of people have insurance but can’t afford to pay the high deductibles. Not because they haven’t socked away money as you are implying, but because they don’t earn enough to do so.The discussion of health insurance is not as cut and dry as you are making it. President Obama is not attempting to kill off anyone, and contrary to what you have said, the federal government implementing a universal healthcare program will not result in "far more deaths"
You’re allowing your misinformation and distrust of the current administration to cloud the facts of a serious situation. Save your anti-Obama rhetoric for your tea-party shindigs!
My bingo was to you Ms. Belinda. Why it was attached as a response to a different comment both angers and disturbs me, because I agree with what you have to say…not with what it made me seem to believe in.
This crap needs to stop. I’m on bedrest to stay alive for my children, and now they want to play high school games here to try and discredit my actual position.
Grow up Fox News…just because you are in ATL doesn’t mean you control my Universe.
Amy, PennDragon Studios
simpletownUSA.com