Mike Coronella: Getting Personal with the Health Care Debate

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
by Mike Coronella

Just like most Americans, I've watched the "debate" over access to health care with a slightly detached interest. Why not? I'm reasonably young (45), I'm a backcountry guide and a member of a very busy Search and Rescue team; why should I be too worried about the whole thing? True; I haven't been able to afford health insurance for myself and family, in fact, I haven't had insurance since a long-ago job covered me, this despite the fact that my wife and I both work, we have a modest mortgage, we don't make car payments, and have solar panels on our roof to help limit our monthly utility bills, don't have Iphones or Blackberries, heck, we don't even have pay-for television in our home.

But my wife and I have never been really concerned about the lack of coverage, despite the obvious peace of mind if we could afford it; we figured our age and fitness, coupled with healthy diets that eliminate fast foods, high-fructose corn syrup, and greasy foods, and an active lifestyle without tobacco would keep us insulated from the stories about those who find themselves with diabetes, heart disease, or obesity piling up the medical bills because of their sedentary lifestyles.

I always figured by the time we'd need access to medical care, our country would have figured out that having healthy citizens was a good thing socially, morally, and economically, and that having an industry that comes between a person and their medical providers would be noticed for what it is: an expensive and unnecessary layer that inhibits a healthy populace, placing profit above everything else...we are an enlightened nation after all. Right?

Wrong. We have one group (some call them the party of "no") blocking any and all attempts at reforming the system; we have another group clearly in the pockets of the industry that bleeds our nation literally and economically, another voice that bases its objections on lies and works against their own interests. But where's the group that represents the 76% of polled Americans (NBC/WSJ) who want a Public OPTION designed to bring real competition to the titans? It seems to incredulously have been wiped off the table like discussions of impeachment or accountability a couple of years ago. A similar proportion of physicians (76%), the very heart of our health care system, have spoken out for a Public OPTION (NE Journal of Medicine). And yet, there's no voice that seems to be speaking for either the people, their doctors, or for common sense for that matter. Heck, the discussion seems to require, strangely, an equal amount of each party, though that's certainly not the voting proportion the American people sent to Congress.

Oh well, so much for my detachment, now it's personal: on August 15, I suffered a heart attack -- a simple issue with my DNA is all it took. I had triple bypass surgery exactly one month later. So, compounded with being out of work, I now have a rapidly growing pile of medical bills. So much for all the hard work over the years; we're looking at losing everything we've got -- or simply stiffing the people whose hard work and experience kept me alive. We've found in the state of Utah, an ultra-conservative state where government assistance is demonized in favor of private charity, that there is NOTHING available to assist us. The charity is limited to "members" of the dominant faith (we're not), and as my wife still works, we don't even qualify for assistance from the programs that we have long been mandated to pay for: Medicare/Medicaid. She could quit her job, then we'd be poor enough, apparently, to be worthy of getting some help staying afloat -- but of course, by then, we'd already be sunk.

So back to the "debate": the latest says I'm going to be required to have a private insurance plan. So while I will struggle for years to dig myself out of this mountain of debt for simply being unlucky enough not to have Methuselah's bloodline, I'm going to be forced to give some of my dwindling resources to the very industry that has backed me and my family into the corner that we now find ourselves in? This isn't just wrong, it's insane. No wonder people throw labels around for our elected PUBLIC SERVANTS such as "partisan hacks," "corrupt," and "fascists" -- they clearly aren't trying to help "we the people"; they're obviously helping the corporations who've led us to the here and now; certainly not the change We The People have voted for. I know I'm ready to hand my bills over to Utah's senior Senator, Orrin Hatch, who's actions and inactions are as responsible for not only my situation, but also the national mess we're in, as anything I have done.

As the "debate" continues to show how unenlightened our "representatives" truly are, keep in mind; all I did to get here was apparently not choosing my ancestors well and choosing jobs that don't provide us with health care... couldn't happen to you, now, could it?

Let's get this fixed, and let's do it right: a public option that takes profit out of illness and injury and forces the immoral insurance industry to actually provide reasonable health care access for all people seems to be the only reasonable solution.

Put it back on the table; it should be the main course of action.

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY

Mike Coronella is a backcountry guide in and around Canyonlands National Park, co-founder of The Hayduke Trail (an 850-mile desert/wilderness backpacking route), and a member of Grand County (UT) Search and Rescue.