Jumping on the Bandwagon

elle

OK, so everyone is all a fuss over today's Presidential address to Congress on health care. Well, I would like to jump on the bandwagon, and since the internet is the place for this to happen, add my (wage gap) 76 cents. Prepare yourselves for a rant, because I am SO OVER the politicking. This is peoples lives people.

We activist types all know that it's women and children, particularly poor women, women of color, and immigrant women, in this country who don't have health care, who have lower health outcomes, and who don't have access to preventative care or healthy options--particularly when it comes to mental health services. So, why aren't we really talking about this. And why aren't our congressional leaders reaching out to those people to push this forward. Sure, you might have to knock on a few doors because the truly poor, be they in Detroit or Appalachia, can't get to your town hall meetings. And you may have to actually REALLY understand the options because they might not understand your deliberately ambiguous soundbites. Basically, I'm calling your bluff Obama administration, Congress, and the medical establishment--what are you going to do for the people who really need you but who you aren't talking to.

OK, got that off my chest. Now for some thoughts.

In the US, our health care system is based on a heternormative family model. You don't believe me, think about how you got health care (if you had it, see above) as a child. Chances are, you were covered under a parent's employment based health care. Generally we allow individuals to pay extra to cover family members on their employee health care, but...And this is a big BUT. Employers can make certain decisions about who can be covered and for what cost. For many non-married couples it costs more to cover a partner than if you were married. So if you are a couple that is not legally allowed to be married in your state you're paying more. Add children into the mix and it gets even more complicated. Most states only allow one parent in a same-sex family to be the custodial parent, so it's quite possible you wouldn't even be allowed to cover your own children on your work health care. And don't even get me started on taxes, etc.

My point here is that health care should be an individual right. I should be guaranteed health care whether I'm married, single, parenting, child-free, or whatever. Whether or not I can have health insurance shouldn't have to figure into a decision to get married (if you're even allowed to make that decision). This does not even qualify as the tip of the proverbial iceberg, but I want people to think about the long term consequences of a sexist, racist, heterosexist, classist system.

Meanwhile, a nod to the Corvallis members of Mad as Hell Doctors, who started their tour yesterday!! Check out the webpage and join their care-a-van!