$6,500… $7,000… $10,000… or more per month for medication. This, on top of bills for medical services.
It’s easy for a young mother, living in an up-scale community, to traipse her self out to tug at the heart strings of the rest of us for her family’s challenges. But it isn’t her fault. We’ve raised at least several generations, beginning with my own, that if we don’t have the personal resources to pay our bills, while living the lifestyle we wish, it’s okay to look to others for the deficit.
It’s easy to look to government to force others, across the entire community, to support us.
Just like it’s easy to stand children on street corners, road intersections, panhandling, when threats are made to cut back on school programs.
What’s this teaching?
It’s easy for someone of my generation, the Geezer Gang, to sit back and say “I’ve got mine, you all shouldn’t be so callous. Give what you’ve worked hard to earn to those who want it instead of saving it for your own families.” I mean, like, after all, we Geezers won’t be around much longer, in the grand scheme of things, and it’s okay to leave a humongous tab for our heirs to pay… so others can live the way they want now, right now.
Mr. Webster’s gang, Noah not Daniel, defines insurance as “coverage by contract whereby one party undertakes to indemnify or guarantee another against loss by a specified contingency or peril.” Basically, we pay in advance so another entity will pay for catastrophic incidents that may occur in our lives. We can attempt to lower our personal exposure by forming groups to spread out the individual liability. This has been accomplished by businesses, trade unions, trade and other associations just to name a few, developing group based insurance plans to cover their members with lower individual costs based upon a larger risk pool.
I recently heard a study cited that stated something over 12 percent of wage earners with incomes in excess of $79,000 per year have no medical insurance. Why? Because they don’t want to pay for it. That’s a choice. How many of us know people who live in upscale communities, drive spiffy vehicles, enjoy expensive vacations, and otherwise “live the lifestyle”… but have no insurance, who prefer to spend their personal money on good times instead of such mundane items as insurance for themselves and their families?
Certainly, we can cite examples of those who do what they should for their families but still experience hardships due to family medical challenges. I’ve known a lot of people during the course of my journey, but have never known any family that had to file bankruptcy due to medical catastrophes when doing what they were supposed to do and not living beyond their means. This isn’t to say it doesn’t happen. I’ve never known anyone in that situation.
By the same token I believe I have a little experience with medical catastrophes. I’m told my paternal grandfather was injured as a result of his safety belt slipping while working on the Chickamauga Dam, crushing his, um, man parts, and with no medical insurance back in those days he died as he lay on a gurney in the hallway of a local hospital. He died steeping in his own toxins with his wife, my Granny, at his side the entire time. They had 6 children, from a toddler to barely a teenager, and the year was 1939. Starting from nothing, each of them became successful members of society.
I’ve spent weeks playing the “let’s make Summer’s teeth rattle” several times a day while keeping nieces so their parents could work at getting their lives back in order… beating on her back until we could get a vibrator while she awaited a lung transplant to relieve symptoms of her cystic fibrosis. I’ve sat with a terminally ill friend, holding his hand through the death rattle as he passed from this plane. I’ve sat with aged Veterans talking about their life experiences. I’ve sat with friends chit-chatting about nothing… both of us knowing there was nothing to be done and their end was at hand. I’ve relieved friends in the hospital so they could have some time off while their son was there for treatment… their son who turned four years old on a Tuesday and was diagnosed with leukemia two days later.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you… Lee turns 40 this month and has been in remission for about 30 of those. His Daddy recently retired from the company he worked for when diagnosed because he couldn’t move elsewhere even if he wanted, that “pre-existing condition” dealie. But we do what we have to do as parents and family members, don’t we.
When I became one of those evil rich dudes, going off to start my own business, my children’s mother and I both worked for companies that made health insurance available. We paid our own premiums but it was available, and at a reduced group rate. She continued to work so the family could maintain health insurance coverage. As I became even more evil, and richer, she tapered back to part time to maintain that insurance until we were really, really rich (that meant buying groceries no more than once a month on credit card cash advances so we could make payroll) and could afford to obtain group medical insurance for the company and all employees. It was a benefit, and allowed me to pay employees half of what they would’ve demanded otherwise… except that everybody but one technician was on production by that time, so I outsmarted myself. Bummer.
It also causes me, and many like me, not to suffer gladly so-called entrepreneurs who go off half cocked, can’t afford insurance, or won’t, and then demand others support their lifestyles.
I often disagree about issues with some of my favorite people. One of those is keeping precious progeny on family, employer provided, medical insurance policies. We often hear “I had to pay a lot of money for other people when I was coming up. It’s my turn now.” Really? And how, exactly, does that work for our heirs?
Those wishing to cover adult offspring who’ve reached the age of majority, the age at which they can vote, drink adult beverages legally, execute legal instruments, and have all the other rights of adulthood, have numerous options available. They could negotiate a family policy rider available at additional, individual cost from their employers’ providers. They could also form their own collective and do as a gentleman I know once did… start their own insurance company. His was breast cancer specific. There are others out here in the real world, Realville, the world of profits and losses and returns on investment, that cover other specific issues. Why not an age extended policy for precious progeny? Those who wish could even have it cover their adult progeny to age 40 or 50, but all would require work. It’s easier to have government, with all its resources, do the work for us, isn’t it.
And the question still remains; when has “government” ever done anything less expensively than private enterprise? When has any government mandate ever caused a decrease in the cost of goods and services?
Or those precious progeny could do as I and many others in our younger days. Gosh, all I had to do was raise my right hand, recite a few words and… BAM! I was covered by Uncle Sam’s boys and girls in the United States Navy’s Hospital Corps, and now by the Veterans’ Administration. There were also about 30 years wherein I paid my own.
Tony Martell passed away recently. His foundation, the TJ Martell Foundation, was formed with the intent of funding research and services related to leukemia and other blood related diseases. They’ve raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. How many other charitable organizations are out here? To have charitable organizations and yet demand “insurance” coverage for the same medical issues seems somewhat duplicative doesn’t it.
And the names fly… selfish, callous, hardhearted, sometimes worse.
But if we look at the overall situation who is callous, hardhearted, and selfish? Is it the young couple living in an up-scale community, the member of the Geezer Gang who would experience no negative consequences, and the, as my favorite TreeHugger is wont to describe, wealthy white people with a sense of entitlement asking for “government” to subsidize their lifestyles? Or is it the young couple, earning 30 grand a year working jobs and doing what they need to do as they attempt to build equity in their lives… resisting the expectation to pick up the tab for all those others.
Welfare, by any other name is still welfare isn’t it, no matter what we call it or who the recipient is.
Chewbacca spent most of a night last week telling Dr. Jessica at Puppy Emergency how badly he felt. He was pitiful, and we thought he’d just let his alligator mouth overload his hummingbird tush chasing that four-legged floozy up the road. After observing him yesterday, having enlisted the aid of Elvis and Priscilla, but Nanners and The Sparkmeister knew better, trying to chase one of the neighbor’s cows back to her pasture, I suspect he’s been taught an even more valuable lesson. Getting between a Marine Corps Drill Instructor and his platoon, a tigress and her cub, or a cow and her calf all have similar outcomes… none of which are pretty.
I wonder if these Republican Weenies, as my second favorite politician always referred to them, will learn a comparable lesson.
Nine months old and already 70 pounds, I sure hope Chewbacca doesn't grow into those feet...
Royce Burrage Jr.
Royce@Officially Chapped.org
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Royce's article is so on point. I guess I'm a "geezer" too, I've worked all my life and for part of that history I didn't have medical insurance. If I had known then what I know now I would have made it a priority right up there with the electric, or the mortgage but I was young and empowered, I "simply didn't need it then".
There was a time when having insurance through your employer was definitely a perk. When we searched for employment and during the interview is was always a question we asked, most time before the hourly rate. The bigger companies covered their employees, Mom and Pop companies couldn't afford it. There isn't (to the best of my knowledge) anywhere in the Constitution that requires the government to supply or even supplement medical insurance. A senior citizen on Medicare Advantage pays a deductible, pays a co-pay. A younger person on Medicaid pays no deductible, no co-pay. A senior has paid into medicare their entire work life, a person on Medicaid is hit and miss as far as their work history.
It's a mystery to me how the "gimme" generation has come to be. Did the parents do something wrong? It's a well known and proven fact that the chain of welfare is generational. What began as a hand up has turned into a lifestyle. Exactly how does that work? Is there a verified means test for those that use ETB as their private junk food account? Does anyone review those purchases? Does anyone care?
I work in retail and 95 percent of those using ETB do not purchase good nutritional food. Mountain Dew, chips and ice cream/candy seem to be the biggest purchases. My estimate is 50 percent of the grandparents are now raising their grandchildren thereby qualifying for ETB. The biggest surprise to me daily is the number of men between 20-45 that appear to be dependent on ETB. What's going on with that? If an old lady like me can find work what's the issue with the men who obviously are becoming dependent on hand outs rather than hand ups?
It's pretty disgusting to see how a once vibrant and proud population has turned into a population that are adept at gaming the system. Work brings self-respect, no one wants to work but I've discovered that the hungry will always punch a clock.
We hear all the down side of illegal immigration, how "illegals are taking our jobs" but ask yourself this....when was the last time you saw an "illegal" panhandling? Homeless? They come here to work and that's what they do. Of course you have those that do the gang thing, those that are indeed criminals but do those numbers match the same group of Americans that do the same thing? Not even close.
Sue White