Why Don't We Treat Disease Like We Do Fire?

Have you seen the pictures of the latest fires out in California? Check em out here and here. Firefighters taking the hills, copters and planes dropping water, police and highway patrol securing the area and helping evacuate people, regardless of income, race or any other factor. If you are in danger from fire, the Fire Department will do its best to save you on the Governments dime, no questions asked. Now apply that same altruistic ethic to disease and suddenly it's Socialized Medicine.

Fire and Disease. Both strike without prejudice, both are unpredictable, both are natural disasters. Sure, some people are in more danger because of self-inflicted reasons (not trimming brush around your house vs eating poorly and not exercising) but no one is truly immune. Yet in our society, we are protected from one potentially deadly menace but for the most part, on our own from the other.

Let's take a look on Wikipedia to define "natural disasters" and "natural hazards":

A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard that affects the environment, and leads to financial, environmental and/or human losses.
A natural hazard is a threat of a naturally occurring event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment.
This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability."
A natural hazard becomes a natural disaster when it affects people, officially causing more than 10 deaths, injuring more than 100 people, and/or causing US$16,000,000 of damage.

Suffice to say, disease is a natural hazard and its effects on our population constitute a natural disaster. The qualities of a spreading cancer in the body and a spreading fire in your yard are similar; both are naturally occurring events that endanger lives on an individual and collective level. And yes, they both lead to financial, environmental and/or human losses and cost well over $16 million in damage- billions over, by all estimations. Yet our approach to treating disease is held in vastly different regard than our approach to treating fire.

So if you are against Socialized Medicine, do you support the existence of the Police or Fire Department? Or is that a bad use of taxpayer dollars, an intrusion of Big Government into peoples lives? If saving people from natural disasters like fire, hurricanes, floods, drought and tornadoes is the Governments job, why not saving people from natural disasters like cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and Alzheimers? Where do you draw the line at defining "natural disasters"?

Truth is, there is no money to be made fighting fires. But since there is money to be made "fighting" disease (in reality, we have a symptom-management system that eschews cures for care) there is money to be lost by changing the system. Lost by the health insurance companies, by the Pharmaceutical companies, by the lobbyists who fight for the status quo and by the politicians who support them. We cannot see the long and short term benefits of disease prevention but we can easily see the benefits of preventing fire. Perhaps that is because of its catastrophic physical effects (100ft flames and buildings melting) which provide better visuals than some insidious internal disease. But both endanger and take lives, both cost our society time and money and both don't discriminate against their victims. Ultimately, it is we the people and our elected officials that do the discrimination and play god with peoples lives.

I wrote a piece awhile back on how certain businesses shouldn't be run for profit and growth, and I included the military, the prison system and the health care system. The fluctuations of world affairs in relation to our national security should dictate our military purposes, not the need to keep our weapons manufacturers and contractors afloat. The prison system should flex with the ups and downs of crime, not actively lobby the government against laws that would reduce inmate populations. And the health care system- like the Fire and Police Departments- should give our citizens the security to know that we don't let our own people go bankrupt for getting sick, we don't let our nations children or elderly suffer needlessly and we don't let profit margins dictate how many people live or die.

Ever see a team of firefighters do a controlled burn? They work preemptively so that fires don't get out of control, though they still sometimes do. A big part of health care reform has to do with covering preemptive medicine, though by preventing disease we are reducing a huge profit center for the Insurance and Pharmaceutical companies. However, we would be saving lives, preventing the financial burden of long-term disease treatment and keeping our population robust and healthy so that we are competitive in the world economy. Preemptive medicine makes good sense for the same reason preemptive fire control does: it saves big money in the long term and saves lives all around. And keeping our people healthy helps keep them happy and productive in their individual lives and in society as a whole.

My Grandmother always used to say that without your health, you're nothing. Health and happiness, those are the pillars of life, the basis for living well. In fact, our Declaration of Independence mentions Lift, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness as certain unalienable Rights which Government is tasked with securing. Perhaps We the People can realize that when we take care of our brothers, we take care of ourselves. But in America, what is our imperative to take care of our brothers? It is here that I'd like to bring in religion- specifically Christianity- to make a point: if We the People ultimately decide the fate of the union and roughly 75% of Americans are Christian, then finding common ground between Christianity and a Public Option is fairly crucial to its support. Backing up support for Universal Health Care with the teachings of Jesus? Priceless. So for the 3/4 of Americans who subscribe to one of the many varieties of Christianity so prevalent here in America, let's look to the Bible where we find these quotes: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." [Matthew 7:12] and "Love your neighbor as yourself." [Matthew 22:36-4] Both quotes equate our neighbors fate to our own. Here's one more good one, which really gives you all the rationale you need for religiously supporting Universal Health Care or fully Socialized Medicine, take your pick:

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least among you, you did not do for me.'" [Matthew 25:41-45]

So to recap our current state of American society: If you are poor and unable to defend yourself from fire, we got you covered. However, if you are poor and unable to defend yourself from disease, best of luck. Or not. Whether or not you are a Christian, if you have read the biblical quotes above it may dawn on you that Jesus Christ was pretty much a Socialist who believed in helping the poor when they are hungry, thirsty and yes, sick. At the very least, every Christian should support a public option so that the least among us can have a basic ability to get care on their own. At the very most, there should be Christian rallies for Universal Health Care all over our country, with signs quoting Jesus and a serious push to take care of the least among us. Could you imagine that? If you actually read the teachings of Jesus, of course you can. If you blindly follow the Religious Right and let Fox News corrupt your brain, it would be anathema to the current state of American Christianity.

So many of the so-called "Christians" in America who rally against "Socialized Medicine" are acting contrary to the philosophy and messages of Jesus Christ, who they claim to worship and whose words they claim to live by. Imagine if all of those "anti-Socialists" were out rallying against the Fire Department or the Police Department instead of Health Care Reform. Against FEMA, against the National Guard, or against Social Security and Medicare. Against helping the poor in any way via our Government, which at this point is acting the most Christian of all in trying to take care of the least among us. Shame on those Christian hypocrites, for they should know better. After all, they've read the teachings of Jesus their whole lives, proclaimed themselves to be disciples of Christ and then put all their time and energy rallying against helping the poor, whom Jesus specifically commanded them to help. Is this a great country or what? It is my hope that one day we will look back in shame at how we neglected our own. For those among us who feel that shame now, we must act in any and every way possible to ensure that ALL Americans are taken care of, which means supporting a viable public option and Universal Health Care for all. If it's good enough for Jesus, isn't it good enough for America?

PS- After writing this piece, I saw Michael Moore's new movie "Capitalism: A Love Story" which I highly recommend you check out. Kudos to Moore for shedding some much needed light on the greatest swindle ever perpetrated in America. He also drew some of the same conclusions about Jesus being anti-Capitalist, if not outright Socialist. If you haven't read Moore's latest HuffPo piece, here is a relevant and poignant quote:

"I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what's left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother's and sister's keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you'd have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates."

Read the whole piece at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/for-those-of-you-on-your_b_308948.html

 

 

Comments

[Amy Wilshire]

I am on a very fixed income, and on the State's version of insurance. What a joke! Can't get certain tests done, because they don't think it's required. It takes over three weeks just to get an answer on whether or not they'll replace wheelchair wheels. What good is the wheelchair if you can't go anywhere? Not to mention, I would be unable to find insurance in any other place. I have far too many underlying pre-existing conditions. Does that mean that I should just be put aside and left to die?

When did it become so acceptable to just push those who are struggling out of society? Our Government isn't going to do anything unless we force them to. We're the People of this country. We should all be given the same consideration.

[BlackJAC]

Because a whole slew of doctors haven't been killed in a 9/11-style terrorist attack?

[pontesisto]

If you would like to help pressure Congress to pass single payer health care please join our voting bloc at:
http://www.votingbloc.org/Health_Bloc.php