March 22nd, 2010
Today, I blocked the feed from a few of my Facebook “friends.”
When I first got my Facebook account, I would send a message to anyone from my hometown that wished to “friend” me that I did not wish to be insulting, but my friends are artists, designers, professors, politicians and theologians—all of whom are fairly liberal.
Most accepted without much comment, though, one, with whom I was never friends in high school, did rather snarkily rescind her invitation. I was relieved. She hasn’t changed a bit. I finally relaxed my policy to accept anyone that was either from my high school class or family.
I have gone out of my way not to post anything rude about other people’s political or religious beliefs. I think it is simple good manners.
Once I did post what I thought was a rather utopian status that was copied from another friend’s status:
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, join us in posting this as your status for the rest of the day.
I was completely astounded by the vitriol that was spewed at me from one of my childhood classmates. This person was not someone I had been friends with growing up. This person was a mean and bitter child. But I always estimated a higher level of intellect than this diatribe conveyed. Second, it was not even posted to my status, so I almost didn’t even see it at all. Said person was using his own status to attack me! Repeatedly.
I was horrified.
His “arguments” had nothing to do with what I was saying. They incoherent rants repeated from some conservative radio talk show.
Today, I have been appalled, once again, by the bile spewed by people professing to be “Christian.” While I do not represent myself as a “good” Christian, I am one hell of a Presbyterian (PCUSA) and have had the benefit of a very deep Biblical education by a string of respected theologians and seminarians. (If I had not been so exhausted with The Church itself, I probably would have ended up in seminary.)
The whole point being—the Bible charges us to love and care for one another and I did not see any caring for others in these mean and racist posts.
I have seen family members lose homes because of catastrophic health care costs.
I have had to take abuse from a doctor who wanted to insert a feeding tube into my grandmother after a catastrophic stroke had taken everything except her heartbeat. My grandmother’s worst fear would have been realized, and the healthcare industry could have soaked Medicare for a year of keeping my grandmother in agony. We learned then that a Living Will is only as good as the intestinal fortitude of the person who is charged with carrying it out. After a couple of days of accusing my mother of “killing” her mother , the doctor saw that we were united, and he meekly told us that we were doing the right thing to let her go. (The jackass!!!!)
For vast periods of time in my adult life, I have had no healthcare insurance. When things were good, I would buy a policy from a large “respected” carrier (Blue) only to have my rates go up every 6 months—even though I was healthy, young and not using it.
The first economic bump in the road, and boom! It was gone. (I am working on a film on explaining economics.) With my business, I was more likely to have a year of healthcare premiums in hand than I was the several hundred (or a grand) a month it would have taken to secure a really good policy.
Before I moved to the UK, I went to the gyno. It is a very trusted practice, however, the doctor I wanted to see had a 6 month waiting list for appointments so I was seeing one I did not like.
I sat there and endured this woman shrieking at me and making judgments about me because I had not had consistent healthcare coverage. She ranted that I would have no choice about a doctor in the UK .
All I could think was: I had no choice there. The insurance company decided which practice I could see. And I was stuck with this shrew because all of the other doctors were booked.
That same afternoon I got a notice that my healthcare policy had been cancelled (thanks to a direct debit snafu) and I had to pay through the nose for the privilege of suffering the indignities heaped on me by this experience.
I have been pleasantly surprised and pleased by the care I have gotten from the NHS in the UK. (The facilities are not what you expect in the US, but then again, you get good care and are not paying for wallpaper and cushy sofas to distract you from getting gouged.)
I had the choice of several practices in the area. I chose the one with the most women doctors. (Always a safer bet.) While Dr. Barbie, my primary GP irks me with her insistence that everyone is born to run—I can get reassigned if I wanted to bother.
Prescriptions cost £7.30 each (Nasonex! Woo-hoo!) And I ended up seeing an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) specialist because of my chronic sinus infections who immediately did an allergy panel on me. Guess what! I have some pretty bad allergies. Since one is an allergy to dogs, I have begged for shots, but I have Nasonex and had a years’ worth of loratidine shipped over from the States. (Thanks Jane.)
Not too long ago, my sister asked why I had not been tested for a condition that runs in our family.
The simple answer was—I couldn’t afford to be diagnosed with anything that could be a preexisting illness.
Now, maybe I will be able to have healthcare as I age.
And I may have a few less Facebook “friends.”
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