The Health Care Debate Comes to Town, Belatedly

The health care debate has died down quite a bit but I’ve been thinking a lot about it for some time now. To help me sort through the overheated rhetoric on this subject, I tried to educate myself. In the process, I found the Kaiser Family Foundation’s website. It’s a great resource and really helped me see why this issue has been considered in various forms for so many generations.

After reading a good deal, I started to write down my thoughts. I learned a lot of interesting information but the topic is so complex that I found myself writing, and writing and writing as I worked through it. I quickly realized something critical. The facts are certainly very important and have shaped my view, but for me, it all really boils down to Jennifer.

Jennifer was my hairstylist. She was about my age and we had a lot in common. She had a husband and a daughter who was about a year older than my daughter. She loved her family intensely, always smiling and radiating love when she discussed them. I would come in every six weeks or so to get my hair cut and we would exchange the latest adventures in parenting. From the pictures at her station, I knew her daughter looked like her husband, with cute red hair, beautiful blue eyes and fair skin. Jennifer was quiet but funny. She was a great hair stylist, not just because she did good hair but also because knew that sometimes a tired working mother just needs to be quiet and read mindless magazines while she gets her hair done. I got to know her over the years and, while I’m sure she had flaws like the rest of us, she was a good person, kinder than most.

Then one day I came for my appointment and I noticed she was thinner. She was never overweight to me but she said she had gone on a diet and quickly lost a few pounds. She was happy with the outcome. We chatted, she cut my hair and I made my next appointment.

When I came back six weeks later, Jennifer wasn’t there. They told me that she was sick and asked if someone else could cut my hair. I said sure, and didn’t think much of it. Velma, the substitute, told me the real story. Jennifer had kept losing weight after she concluded her diet. She got thinner and thinner and finally went to the doctor when she started having pain and trouble eating. The doctor quickly discovered that Jennifer, at 41, was completely riddled with cancer and there was very little they could for her. She lasted for another few weeks and then died, leaving a completely devastated husband and 3 year old daughter and at least one customer who will never forget her.

Jennifer’s cause of death was cancer but the truth is she died because she didn’t have health insurance. She and her husband both worked full-time, often more than full-time, and neither of their jobs provided health insurance. She apparently had felt off for quite some time – not much energy, etc. – but because her symptoms were not overwhelming and they didn’t have coverage, she didn’t go to the doctor until it was too late. Like most mothers, she was thinking of her family and putting her needs last. She didn’t want to incur the cost of an uninsured doctor’s visit so she waited. She waited and now her daughter has a whole chunk of her life that’s missing. Mom will never show her how to do a ponytail or counsel her through playground heartbreak. No cheering for her on stage or field, no pictures before prom, no excitement of college, no congratulations on a great job, no crying at her wedding or easing her anxiety as she experiences her first pregnancy and birth.

On a very fundamental level, I think this is wrong. Morally wrong. It’s wrong that a family can follow all the rules and still get a death sentence that could have been prevented. Jennifer and her husband both had training that qualified them for jobs needed by our society. They both worked hard, pulling extra shifts and generally making it. And Jennifer died anyway. This isn’t “just one of those things that happen” or a mysterious bad luck scenario that we just have to accept. This happens because so many of our leaders have cared more the next election and those fat checks from the insurance industry than they did about helping actual people, and the life and death problems they face every day.

I also think this is wrong because of my faith. I’m no theologian but my reading of the Bible makes one thing clear: We are to help those who need it, especially those people who have less than us. We are to love others as Christ loves us and demonstrate that love through our actions. It’s hard to imagine Christ being OK with us waging a war of choice and approving tax breaks for millionaires but suddenly finding ourselves broke when the subject of helping people comes up.

So I’m now armed with quite a few facts about the health care debate in America and I can quote those to you if you like. But for me it all comes down to Jennifer. I don’t believe in a government program for every issue but I do believe – to put it in the terms of our former president – that no child should be left behind when a parent dies for lack of insurance coverage. We can quibble about the details and work those out over time but the bottom line is extending health care to all was the right thing to do. I’m just sorry that it didn’t come soon enough for one little girl in Suwanee, GA.