Thread: An American Death

This is from a blog that I follow.. a small personal site of a restaurant owner in California....a former neighbor who is a left coast liberal.. and here he reports the death of a person I used to know..
FROM THE BLOGS:

Finally, his arm really hurt, and he was feeling bad, and he looked like shit, everyone said....so he took himself in to the ER.....and they immediately stuck him in ICU and started dialysis because the infection was already killing his kidneys just with the waste products that sloughed off of the battle his body was fighting with the bug.

He had never yet missed an hour of work. Even until his last day.

Some years back we had an evangelical illegal Mexican woman working for us.....and her family eventually tagged along. We liked her, and wanted to keep her and integrate her.....so we offered her health insurance. My cost was a couple of hundred bucks a month, and the policy was the Blue Cross Prudent Provider deal with a $1000 yearly deductible, with an 80/20 donut up to $30k and then everything free.

I explained everything to Josefina, and she looked at me like I had ten heads.

"You mean I would have to PAY for doctors? Why would I do that? Right now I just go to the emergency room, and everything is free.......Why would I want insurance?"

R. K.: mountain man, ski-instructor, actual cowboy......Aboriginal Man of the West.....is dead because his inborn pride would not let him accept something that he could not pay for with his own labor......even though it meant his life. It never occurred to him that the system might be wrong.

"You mean I would have to PAY for doctors? Why would I do that? Right now I just go to the emergency room, and everything is free.......Why would I want insurance?"

Ya why would you.....especially when they can't take your home or anything else you've worked or invested in.....garnish your pay checks etc. Like the rest of us go through.

In contrast to this:

You mean I would have to PAY for doctors? Why would I do that? Right now I just go to the emergency room, and everything is free.......Why would I want insurance?"

There is this:

R. K.: mountain man, ski-instructor, actual cowboy......Aboriginal Man of the West.....is dead because his inborn pride would not let him accept something that he could not pay for with his own labor......even though it meant his life. It never occurred to him that the system might be wrong

This is an aspect of American society that is not relayed enough: that many - maybe most - Americans needing and having legitimate claim to social benefits don't ever bother to apply for them.

About 50% of those that become 'first-time unemployed' (the very 'hip-shot' yardstick quoted too often in the press as a barometer of current 'unemployment') never bother to register with their local employment dept/apply for unemployment benefits. In short: there is a rarely-heard, proud, and morally-guided group of Americans that, although very quiet, suffers in near silence and anonymity that really DO deserve the help.

***People that don't deserve benefits are receiving them, and people that DO deserve the benefits aren't receiving them***

In short: there is a rarely-heard, proud, and morally-guided group of Americans that, although very quiet, suffers in near silence and anonymity that really DO deserve the help.

Socialistic European Health care or Insurance is NOT the answer..Those are failed systems..
WE need a system designed by Americans ..For Americans..
This is how Americans die:

"R.K. never asked for help.....beyond a jump if his battery died in his truck......R.K. knew how to nurture any amount of game and farm animals.....and it never occurred to him that part of his natural birthright for being a hardworking American might be that he would have access to health care equal to that of the animals he worked with.

The cost of insurance for R.K. would have been about $2500 a year, in our ****ed up system.....allowing for multi-billion dollar bonuses for the CEO's of the insuring company. This comes out to about a buck an hour....somewhere between ten and six percent of his wages.

The fact that R.K. died in a hospital because he would not allow his sense of values to ask for help from a society of which he was a valuable and integral part is a huge tragedy. It is a war crime. It is a disaster.

One dollar an hour? One dollar an hour trade for R.K.? Are you ****ing kidding me? I know fifty guys would pay that dollar for R.K......but none of them have health insurance, either.

DEPORT the ILLEGALS that are CLOGGING our works and THAT would help a LOT!

***People that don't deserve benefits are receiving them, and people that DO deserve the benefits aren't receiving them***

Yup, sad but true.