On August 23, 2009, a Mississippi ER doctor wrote a letter to the editor of the Clarion Ledger. (Not to the White House as some have said.)
The actual letter can be found here but I will sum it up in this post with my reaction.
His letter was titled, "Why Care For The Careless?"
Basically, Dr. Roger Starner Jones describes taking care of a patient with a shiny gold tooth, elaborate tattoos, the newest cell phone on the market, and $400 tennis shoes. When he looked at the chart, he saw that the patient was on Medicaid. The doctor said, "During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer." Dr. Starner Jones's point was that we don't really have a healthcare crisis, we have a culture crisis.
I was like, BRAVO, Doctor! This is my issue with Medicaid. It's not monitored! I'm on Medicare because I'm on disability, and my husband's insurance kicked me off their plan and forced me to pay for Medicare. It certainly wasn't my choice. Either way, you don't see me with gold teeth, expensive clothes, fancy hair, acrylic nails, or super expensive tennis shoes!
People who receive Medicaid do so because they are financially unable to even pay for Medicare which I can tell you is $96.00 a month. The patient above, even at one pack of smokes a day, is spending $140.00 a month just on CIGARETTES! Only eating at fast food places? Average $7.00 a meal (which is a conservative estimate), even only twice a day, that's $98.00 a week, or $392.00 a month!
Getting acrylic nails done is about $40.00 (at a cheap place). Getting them filled is about $20-25.00, and it needs to be done at least every 2 weeks, if not more. When I used to get my hair done (can't afford it now) it was easily $100.00 a time. I got it done every 6 weeks to maintain it. So given the figures above our patient has spending habits of $562.00, not including dental work, tattoos, tennis shoes, clothes, gasoline, bills, rent...see my point?
And Congress wants ME to pay for HER insurance? NO. Not only no but H#LL no. Are you kidding me??
Around here, a person has to make less than $800.00 a month to qualfy for Medicaid (free insurance from the government). This woman is spending more than that on crappy habits!
Assuming she's on Medicaid, she probably qualfies for welfare and food stamps. More money coming out of my pocket.
Now listen. I have NO PROBLEM helping people that need help. I DO have a HUGE problem when MY TAXES are paying for someone's cigarettes and tattoos! White, black, yellow, red, I do not care! Lazy has no color.
In the Bible, there is a wonderful example of how people who need help SHOULD be helped. From Ruth, chapter 2: "And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor..." So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.... Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, "Whose young woman is that?" The foreman replied, "She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter...."
At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar." When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her." So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
Even though she had nothing (she an her mother in law Naomi were completely broke and on their own), she worked. She worked from sun up til sundown. And for her work she was taken care of.
Now I am not so simple minded as to think that all you have to do when you are down on your luck is to find a farmer. The point is, Ruth didn't just sit around and wait for someone to take care of her. She sought a solution. She WORKED at what she could. She earned her food. She earned her good reputation.
We need to overhaul health care, alright, and GET RID of government healthcare. Give the power back to the doctors and patients! Let the patients CHOOSE their doctors. Limit or eliminate ridiculous malpractice lawsuits. Let the DOCTORS decide what to charge for their services, and tell the government to butt out.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of my tax money paying for anyone's acrylic nails and beer.
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