I May Have Just Been Murdered By House Republicans

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I may be dead already.

 

And House Republicans may be the ones who killed me.

 

With the passage of a healthcare bill they, themselves, haven’t read – haven’t studied – haven’t thoughtfully considered in any way – it seems they’ve opened the door for insurance companies to deny people coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

 

I have one.

 

I’ve had two small heart attacks this year.

 

So I sit here stunned at the news on my computer feeling very much at a loss.

 

People have legitimate political differences, but this… it’s just beyond anything I’ve ever experienced personally.

 

There are people who count on me – my daughter, my wife, my students. I’m not so vain as to imagine that they can’t get along without me, but my loss will hurt them. I think at the very least they’ll miss me.

 

I’m 43-years-old. I’ve lived a good life. I just never expected to be abandoned in such a way by a society I’d always thought was more humane.

 

But if this legislation becomes the law of the land, what will I do?

 

I take six or seven pills a day to control my cholesterol, keep the stints in my heart clean, control my blood pressure, slow my heartbeat, etc. Without them, I almost certainly will have another heart attack. Yet I have no idea how I could possibly afford to take them without insurance.

 

And if I get sick, I won’t be able to work. I’ll bring in even less money. I won’t be able to help support my family. I’ll end up being a liability, a burden.

 

House Republicans have to know there are people out there like me. There have to be a lot of people in even worse shape than I am.

 

Are they really going to just let all of us die?

 

I had hoped to see my daughter grow up. She’s only 8-years-old, the most precious person in my life. No one is more full of energy, more vivacious and joyful. She loves to draw and write short stories. She pretends to be a teacher just like her father and gives her stuffed animals assignments.

 

I guess I’ll never get to see the person she becomes. I’ll never find out if she goes to college, if she finds love, if she has children of her own.

 

Can it really all come down to this?

 

My wife and I have been through a lot together. We met back in high school. Before I became a public school teacher, we worked together at various local newspapers. She supports me when I can’t go on. I hope I am able to give her back even a fraction of the strength she lends me.

 

Does this mean we’ll have to say goodbye, and so much sooner than I ever imagined?

 

My middle school students and I just finished reading “The Diary of Anne Frank.” When we closed the book, there were some tears shed. I passed around the tissues, and we discussed how we felt. Many of them expressed anger that some people could hold others’ lives so cheaply as the Nazis did Anne and her family. Are House Republicans guilty of a similar crime? They aren’t rounding anyone up to send to death camps, but they’re apparently content to let many of us just die.

 

The pundits tell me I have nothing to worry about. The bill won’t pass the Senate, they say. And even if it does, the President would be breaking every campaign promise he ever made, if he signs it.

 

So what else is new?

 

This is the world we live in now.

 

It’s not the country I was born into. It’s a cold place. A heartless reality.

 

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll gather the strength to resist, to call my Congressperson again, to protest, to organize.

 

But as for today…

 

I can’t even.

 

So I’ll head home, and give my family a big hug, spend whatever time I can with them.

 

Because if my life now depends on the compassion of Republican lawmakers, I may not have much of it left.

 

 

 

 

 

11 thoughts on “I May Have Just Been Murdered By House Republicans”

  2. How many Americans take prescribed drugs to help keep them healthy and safe?

    From what my VA doctors have told me, most Americans do and as we age, the numbers grow. Almost half of the adult population of the United States was just tossed in front of a company of moving M1 Abrams tanks.

    According to this report from MPR in 2016, a Federal Survey Finds 119 Million Americans Use Prescribed Drugs.

    “Nearly half of all Americans over the age of 12 take prescription pain relievers, tranquilizers, sedatives or stimulants, according to a federal survey. And 16 percent of the time those drugs are misused by nearly 19 million Americans. Health officials are calling for more drug treatment, but also for more care in prescribing drugs in the first place.”

    http://www.npr.org/2016/09/08/493157917/federal-survey-finds-119-million-americans-use-prescription-drugs

    I’d be willing to bet that many of the Malignant Narcissist’s supporters that still support him will soon wake up to a death sentence when they discover they are going to lose their medical care or it is going to cost them more than they earn.

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  3. Hugs to you and yours. It sucks that we’re on the downward spiral of basic humanity and decency in this country and people are still smiling on the ride. I just can’t see how this is what some people really want–people are people, corporations are not, healthcare is definitely not, and they’re probably drooling already about what they can or will try to get away with. It’s a sad day, and the more I’m learning about it (I’ve been at work so much lately I haven’t been on the internet much at all), the worse it looks. I keep hoping there’s something we’re missing and it’s not as bad as our fears tell us, but what this administration’s been teaching me the past few months is that it’s always worse than we think, so I can’t keep my hopes up for that.

    But I will for the Senate, that they quit their pissing contest with Obama’s legacy and do the right thing for the people who pay their salary in this country instead of the interests they sleep with.

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  4. Your story serves perfectly to expose the disregard that the Republican Party and the elites in America now show openly for their own countrymen’s well being. Arguably, everyone realizes that the issue of health care is not anymore a political issue with honest disagreements from rational individuals. Undeniably, health care is not a right, but a business that employs coercive maneuvers out of the free-market ideology.
    Not long ago it would seem unthinkable or impossible for elected officials to make decisions that would hurt their own constituents. In the current neoliberal frame, politicians represent and protect the interests of the wealthy and their corporations. Their sponsors, and for the same reason their masters, dictate agendas and decisions. I understand this game better now. But what still baffles me is that millions of citizens who will suffer the consequences of their decisions, find their outrageous behavior acceptable and even justified.
    Do we realize that life-and-death decisions are in the hands of people who repudiate the essence of civic values? Aren’t these civic values — solidarity, justice, fairness, and the common good — precisely what these representatives were supposed to defend? Evidently not! So I am not surprised about their decisions. Neoliberalism upholds profits and wealth as its premiere values. Everything is a commodity that can be sold and bought, even people. In this neoliberal version of survival of the fittest, the elite and their politicians reduce citizens’ lives to a mere cost-benefit analysis! I for one do not like my odds in this bizarre game! Does anyone feel the same?

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  5. I guess middle school is where hyperbole is taught. You are a teacher, covered by a health plan bought by the school district. If they want prior conditions covered, they will be. Just as they were fordecades prior to ACA.

    If we are going to turn back this horrible change the Republican House started, we will have to do it with facts. Your story is an interesting read, but you know it to be untrue, and that weakens us when we have to fight with facts.

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    • Matt, I’m sorry you think this is hyperbole, but we know so little about this bill. It was passed without being read, without a CBO score, without public hearings. They could easily allow insurance companies to kick people off who have pre-existing conditions. This is not merely a return to the bad old days. It’s much worse.

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