The Flat Earth Society health care plan

To listen to the democrats and their willing attack dogs in the media and blogosphere tell it, average Americans are not raising their voices against Barack Oblahblah’s expedited health care fiasco in the making.

To hear them spin it, the noisy opposition is nothing more than a coordinated smear campaign orchestrated by coalitions with something to loose if and when the federal government becomes your health care provider. To argue to the contrary is proof of being a GOP operative or some such evil thing. You know, Nazis. Scumbags.

Such tawdry nonsense suddenly passes as “discourse?”

I heard “Duke from Dallas,” a far, far-left blowhard, calling those opposed to the rushed-through health care “reform” “flat-earthers” on WILK yesterday morning. He went on to say that the people most satisfied with their health insurance are:

1. The people that actually have it.

2. The people that don’t use it.

And morning host Nancy Kman essentially agreed by saying the people satisfied with their health care “are the people that don’t go through it (the health care system)".

First of all, I resent being mocked or vilified or deemed to be lucky simply because I do not have a gripe. Imagine that. I’m quiet. I’m content. But in the mind of the far, far-left radical, I’m a target, a “flat-earther” because unlike him, I’m not continually outraged by damn near everything, especially outraged by that that I may lack and want provided to me by someone else.

While I certainly understand where Nancy is coming from, having recently been “through it” about as much as anyone could be put through it, I disagree with her assertion that once you and I go through it, we too will join the ranks of those that have added Big Health Care to the growing list of capitalist villains, cretins and scoundrels to be hobbled by the constitutionally-challenged and rapidly expanding federal government.

And I also reject the implied notion that those of us that haven’t gone through it are somehow lucky. Some of us come home from work, lounge in front of the video advertising box and consume enough food to feed all of Somalia for a day. And some of us do this on a daily basis. Yes, some of us mow the lawn and then claim we’ve busted their asses. Some of us are to nutritionally-minded menu planning and an exercise regimen what the president is to honoring his campaign pledges.

Let’s see here. Those bad people, those worthless pricks who actually have health insurance and don’t use it? Hey! Duke was talking about people like me. People like me! Duke was belittling and chastising me. I’m more fortunate than some others and I do not deserve any of it. That’s pretty much what he was spewing for public consumption. I…am part of the problem?

People like me.

Yeah, people like me. The people who know the caloric content of what they eat before they eat it. The people who bicycle thousands of miles every year. The people who kayak miles on end whenever possible. The people who own and actually employ a digital scale more than twice yearly. The people who purposefully work a physically-demanding job all day long, and then go home and work the dumbbells. The people who work hard, play harder and never, ever let on that maybe any of it causes even a single ache or pain. People like me.

I do my level best to stay in shape. I plan for it. And I make certain that I always seem invulnerable to aches, pains and what have you. If I ache, if I hurt, if I venture under the basket and take an elbow to the ribs and lose my breath, you’ll never know about it. I’ve had health insurance since 1979, I do my best not to need to use it, and now I’ve become a target for the abuse of the clamoring hordes of wimps who can’t or won’t do for themselves? And this comes from those suddenly demanding a respectful discourse?

What ever happened to practicing what one preaches?

People, I can only judge the health care system by what I’ve seen of it. My opinion of it is based entirely on my many interactions with it throughout the entirety of my life. And so far, I have no gripes.

And my personal experiences are varied. As a kid, my grandmother marched me down to Dr. Harris’ office on Ross Street whenever such a visit with the doctor seemed necessary. And I remember him charging her ten bucks for such an unscheduled appearance.

By the age of 12, I was on the taxpayer-provided public assistance plan. And I’ve got many cool scars to prove it. And other than suffering the indignity of admitting within earshot of anyone that I was a lowly welfare recipient, I had no complaints about any of it.

At 19-years-old, it was announced to me that I was “with child.” And the very next day I sat with my employer and joined the company’s health care plan. And even though the employers may have changed over these many years, never did I ever even consider applying for any job unless it offered outstanding benefits. The hourly wage or salary needed to be more than adequate, but I’m not like the great majority of the struggling masses. No, I understand the importance of having my ass covered by benefits I hope I never need.

Getting back to Nancy’s comment, I did go “through it” as recently as 2004 when I was T-boned by an inattentive driver who ran a red light. Cuts, sutures, bruises, 3 broken ribs, a bruised kidney and a partially collapsed lung as I recall it. I was out of work for a mere 7 weeks, a testament to my stamina, my overall condition at the time and a healthy dose of stupidity.

I did the hospital visits, the doctor visits and the rehabilitation. And I also had too many dealings to recall with two car insurance companies, as well as my health insurance provider. And throughout the entire unwanted affair, I had no complaints. All of the participants took care of what they would normally be expected to take care of. I had no gripes. And no out-of-pocket expenses. None. In fact, when it was all said and done, I made a tidy profit.

Since I’m suddenly a flat-earther subject to abuse from those who want a “free” ride, I suppose I’ll hear about how much worse it could be. How lucky and fortunate I truly was. Sure, I suppose it’d be worse when I come down with brain cancer, or some rare foot disease that makes it impossible to walk, stand or pee. As Bill Cosby used to say, things can always get worse.

The thing is, I should not be expected to apologize for what hasn’t happened to me.

Because I’m content, because I do not want Dr. Oblahblah dictating anything to me, I’m fair game? I’m your whipping boy, since you can’t seem to provide for yourself, or because you are completely dissatisfied with some aspect of your life? That’s out of line. Your life leaves you seriously wanting, so mine is offered up as the model of what is wrong with this country? That’s ideologically-driven and abusive nonsense that is going to get someone to visiting the emergency room after I rearrange their eye sockets.

My mom spent the majority of her adulthood on the public dole and never wanted for anything in the area of health care.

And my brother…my brother had no health care to speak of when he was diagnosed with serious, life-threatening cardiac problems. None. Nada. Zippo. It was stupid of him to end up like that, but there he found himself.

Yet, there he was admitted to General Hospital and run through a battery of tests. He was spared nothing. Nothing. But the common theme that ran through everything he was told by doctors, specialists, home-visiting nurses and nutritionalists alike was that he needed to make life-altering, life-saving changes and fast. Sadly, changes he did not seriously embrace until it was far too late.

So, the welfare system worked for us. My employer-provided health care has always worked perfectly fine for me and mine. And even with no health care plan or health insurance to speak of, the good, good folks affiliated with General Hospital and all of it’s satellites spared no expense to save my brother. And after he passed away, nary a bill made it to his young widow.

Based on my personal experiences, I have yet to see a lack of access to health care at any socioeconomic level. As a welfare brat, I had access. As an adult, I’ve always had access. And I’ve watched both my mother and my brother be provided with extensive health care services that they arguably had no right to expect.

Still though, the typically apoplectic democrats have taken it upon themselves to not only insult my intelligence, they have also added me to the swelling ranks of the “more fortunate,” proving that no one above reproach when you dare to disagree with those that continually have their open mouths ready to be filled by the federal government’s enormously engorged teat.

That’s where the “discourse” is at. First it was about providing health care for those that supposedly lack it. Now it’s about attacking those that do have it, those that are too lucky, too fortunate or too completely stupid to know what’s good for them. Apparently, only the members of the Flat Earth Society are satisfied with their health care.

And the saddest part of all of this is, all that I’m asking for is to be left alone.

Them’s my thoughts from this far-flung corner of the Earth.

Later

PS--Remember, "less bad is not good. Less bad is better than more bad. But less bad is good."