Healthcare Reform, Part Two: What If Sarah Palin Was A Liberal?

You know who is opposed to healthcare reform?

People that have heathcare.

People like this guy:

…my health care system works fine and has been working fine since finding a good job over 30 years ago after working at learning in school and not playing hooky and using drugs. my health care systems doesn't need reforming. what needs reforming are those lazy, drug addict deadbeats who think I'm paying for their trip trough life. Swim or sink baby cause all I have for your kind is an anchor not a lifesaver…

That was posted under ABC’s George’s Bottom Line by fred (Aug 16, 2009 10:58:20 AM).

You know who else is opposed to healthcare reform?

Ignorant people. Really Ignorant people.

Read down a couple more comments under that same post and you’ll find this comment from Jeff G (Aug 16, 2009 10:59:21 AM):

She [Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius] and the rest of Obama's side plan is to save money through eliminating people via health care. It will save Social Security and other costs that are out of control. The plans are not clearly written but lay very few details and give incredible power to the Executive Branch. Today throughout the USA anyone can go to a hospital and receive care if needed, so the numbers given are a myth. Do we want to give up our personal decisions to the government? [emphasis mine].

You know who else is opposed to healthcare reform?

Stupid people. Really, really stupid people.  People like rplat (Aug 16, 2009 10:59:56 AM) who said:

I can still borrow money or sell my house and contract with a doctor to obtain any critical care that is disapproved by insurance. Under the proposed socialist aberration I will have no rights and no options. Let them sell you this frightening socialist manifesto and you will become wards of the state to be dealt with as the state sees fit. [emphasis mine].

Read the articles, read the comments, listen to those people who are disrupting those townhall meetings. Listen to the pundits and the talk show rabble rousers.

 

A lot of people are opposed to healthcare reform. Especially the proposed public option.

 

So who’s for it?

 

The woman who used to be Sarah Heath is for it.

 

See Sarah Louise Heath was a girl who went to high school in some podunk little American town.  She wasn’t too bright, but that didn’t matter because she was pretty and popular. She played sports. She went to church. She had a boyfriend she was in love with.  Her family wasn’t rich, her dad was was a school teacher, her mother was the school secretary. There really wasn’t anything special about her, other than her looks – that was her only real asset.  She entered a couple of local beauty pageants and even won a few, but it didn’t go anywhere. She went off to college, she didn’t do terrible, she didn’t do great, and she got the kind of degree they give to pretty popular girls. 

 

Then she got the kind of job that they give to pretty popular girls who’ve won a few small town beauty pageants and aren’t all that bright - she ended up on TV.  She wasn’t bad at it but she wasn’t cut out for the big time either - but then again she didn’t have to be. She just needed to read the sports scores and wear a low cut blouse.

 

She married her high school sweetheart, Todd. They had a couple of kids. They bought some land and built a house on a lake – they got a really, really good deal from the bank.  Almost too good in fact. They were suspicious, but the bank said they only had to pay the interest for five years, then they could refinance. Besides, everybody was doing it. The government wouldn’t let the banks screw you, right?

 

She thought maybe she’d like to do something else. Hell, she even thought about running for mayor of her little town.

 

Then the economy tanked. Todd, who worked construction, lost his job.  Well, he didn’t lose it, he knew where it was, but nobody was building houses any more.  So he took odd jobs and worked where he could and raced snow mobiles on the weekend.  Things weren’t great, but they were OK.  Sarah still had her looks and her job with its all important benefits. The kids needed glasses and braces and they’d get strep throat once or twice a year. They needed flu shots and inoculations for school, it was a damned good thing her job had healthcare and dental.

 

Then Todd wrecked his snow machine during a race. Instead of winning the purse, he broke his leg.  The insurance covered some of it, but not all, not even close.  The part they had to pay wiped out what little savings they had. And, of course, Todd couldn’t work with a busted foot, hell he couldn’t even race.

 

But they were managing.

 

But then Sarah got pregnant again.

 

They loved kids, and they’d wanted another one, but the timing sucked.

 

Five years were up. They owed a hell of a lot more than they could pay on that house. Turns out the government could let the bank screw you. And screw pretty much everybody else too as it turned out.

 

They lost the house – and they sure as hell couldn’t get any credit after that. They moved into a rental. Todd finally started getting some unemployment benefits, but it barely covered the cost of groceries and gas.

 

They sold the truck and bought an older car.

 

There were complications with the pregnancy.  The doctors wanted some extra sonograms and some special tests.  The insurance company wouldn’t pay for it. They were worried, but there wasn’t much they could do. They sure as hell didn’t have the money for ten grand worth of tests that nobody was sure they really needed.

 

Besides the other kids had been healthy, this one would be too. 

 

Todd’s leg healed slowly.  He was going to need physical therapy. The insurance didn’t cover that.

 

Sarah worked up until the day she went into labor.

 

They really should have gotten those tests. The baby had Down’s Syndrome. He was going to need special care for the rest of his life.  The insurance wasn’t going to cover a lot of it.  But they were grateful for the part it did cover.  If they ever lost that insurance they’d be screwed, because, of course, the baby’s condition had been “pre-existent” pretty much from the moment he was conceived.

 

Sarah took maternity leave.  A month.  She asked for another couple of weeks, because of the baby and his special needs.  The station granted it. She was kind of surprised – it was almost like they didn’t need her back.

 

Sarah was feeling pretty bad. Post partum depression. She tried to talk to the doctor about it, the one at the emergency room when she had to take the baby in for a high fever – but the doctor didn’t have time or the energy or the interest – and sure as hell she didn’t have the money to see somebody who would actually listen.

 

She started a Facebook page to talk about her feelings – but nobody read it. She was still reasonably attractive, but her small town high school popularity was long gone.

 

The Economy was pretty bad.  The station needed to make some cutbacks.  Letting Sarah go at the end of her maternity leaves wasn’t exactly legal. Todd and Sarah saw an attorney - and ended up eating pancakes and baloney sandwiches for dinner for the next two weeks because the lawyer’s consulting fee finished off what little cash they had left.  People with jobs can afford to sue employers who violate the law.  People without regular employment and with four kids and a special needs baby can’t.

 

Sarah needed glasses, she couldn’t see without them.  But unlike the old days she couldn’t just go to the eye doctor.  She settled for a of pair generic reading glasses she bought for $20 at the Fred Meyers. She went without breakfast for two weeks to pay for them.  They gave her screaming headaches.

 

She signs up for WIC and she tries not to see the looks she’s getting when she pulls out her food stamps at the register. Screw those people, she’s got kids to feed. She’s not too proud to do whatever it takes.

 

Somehow, she still managed to gain weight, mostly in the hips and ass – she never had time to lose the baby fat and she isn’t eating right, cheap stuff, sugars and starches was about all they could afford. Somebody told her she should run to stay in shape or maybe join a gym. It is important to stay healthy. Yeah. Sure.

 

The good news was that their oldest daughter was pretty and popular, if not particularly bright. She had prospects. She’d be moving out soon, going off to college, one less mouth to feed. She had a small scholarship, but it was still going to cost them plenty. They had no idea how they were going to pay for it but they didn’t have the heart to tell her no. Beside, they really, really hoped that the girl would do better than they had.

 

They prayed for it, every night, and twice on Sundays.

 

Todd still couldn’t find work. Not too many prospects for an uneducated laborer with a gimpy leg. Sarah got a job waiting tables at the local Mugshot Saloon in downtown Wasilla. They didn’t offer benefits – well other than the drunks who pinched her chubby ass every night.

 

Then one day their daughter came home and tearfully told them that she was pregnant.

 

She was 17.

 

And the father was an 18 year old high school dropout who talked about maybe getting a job on the Slope. Someday. Then they could get married. His mother was a real nice lady with a meth addiction.

 

What do you suppose Sarah’s prospects are now?

 

 

 

 

You want to know the difference between a liberal and a conservative?

 

Circumstance.

 

You know who’s opposed to healthcare reform?  People who have healthcare and don’t want you to have any – it’s sort of like Heaven in their minds, it’s only good if the riff raff can’t get in too. 

 

You know who’s opposed to reform? People who have healthcare and think that anybody who doesn’t must be a drug addict or a boozer or nothing but a lazy parasite on society.  Only losers don’t have healthcare, and we don’t owe losers a goddamned thing. 

 

You know who is opposed to healthcare reform? People who think that Emergency Room visits for poor people are free.

 

You know who’s opposed to healthcare reform? People who think that having 46 million Americans who use the emergency room as their primary healthcare provider is somehow cheaper for the taxpayer and the people who pay for health insurance.

 

You know who opposes reform? People who think the government is going to balance the budget by turning old people into Soylent Green. 

 

You know who’s opposed to healthcare reform? People who own houses – because they can always sell them and use the money to treat their kid’s leukemia or type II diabetes or a lifetime of Down’s Syndrome.

 

And you know who’s opposed to healthcare reform?

 

People who have million dollar book deals.

 

That’s who.

 

 

 

 

 

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Part 1 of this series is here.