Hypocrite Girl

No, not me. Or at least I hope not! No, I met a young, single mother recently. A financially disadvantaged one, who is on Medicaid and had both of her kids on Medicaid. I'm not certain, but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's likely that she's receiving some sort of government assistance for rent and she might even be on food stamps.

During a conversation with this girl the subject of politics came up and she said, rather emphatically, "I'm completely against abortion. It shouldn't be allowed." (The second she said that I thought to myself, "No shit. Well apparently you don't believe in birth control either.") Then she went on, "And I'm against that gay marriage too. Those gays shouldn't be allowed to adopt kids either! And I'm against universal health care." Now, being a liberal Grrrl, I'm pro-choice (how dare anyone even think of legislating my body!), I'm pro-gay marriage and adoption and I'm highly in favor of universal health care. Until you loose your health insurance because you can't afford the rate increases you have no right to talk. I wasn't going to argue this poor, misguided girl on her brand of "morals" because I knew it was a loosing battle. But I wasn't going to let that crack about universal health care slide. Not when I know she's on Medicaid and so are her kids.

So I asked why she's against it and I explained that I think health care is a right, not a privilege. Yet a privilege is exactly what it's become in this country. She explained that if our country implemented universal health care we would loose specialists and anyone who needed surgery would have to wait a really long time if they got it at all. Spoken like a true brainwashed sheep, incapable of independent thought! I said, "Really? Well my husband has what is considered a very good health plan with his employer and he still had to wait almost a year for knee surgery he desperately needed. And if my son and I wanted to get on his plan we would have to pay almost $800 a month and we have no pre-existing conditions." Her chin dropped at that. Then I continued, "I have really crappy coverage right now because costs have skyrocketed so high that we can't afford anything else. I think our current health care system stinks. What has been your experience with Medicaid?" To which she replied, "Oh, I've never had any problems. If my kids or I need anything at all we get it immediately!"

That really pissed me off. She has health coverage that she thinks is great and yet she doesn't think the middle class should have the same. (No, I don't think Medicaid is the answer either.) She didn't realize that she actually made a wonderful case in favor of universal health care. Ok, admittedly I was pissed off the minute she started spouting her bigotry against gays. The feminist in me was annoyed at her attitude toward the abortion issue. Just because she is against abortion all women should have to give up the right to make life altering decisions for themselves? All women should give up their autonomy in exchange for her narrow ideology? Fuck that.

The U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not have universal health coverage. In addition our health care system is the only one I know of that is entirely profit driven. It's no wonder that Ford and General Motors are loosing millions when they have to compete against foreign auto makers that don't have to carry the burden of health coverage for their employees. Our health care system is rather oppressive and it's going to get much worse before it ever gets better. There are millions of people that walk a very tight financial line and if they get sick they loose everything. If your health insurance is provided by your employer but a catastrophic illness causes you to loose your job, who is going to pay your medical expenses? Hypocrite Girl is quite the conservative but takes advantage of government programs, socialized programs, that the right is traditionally against. She needs to see Michael Moore's movie "SiCKO"! She also needs to pull her head out of her butt.

Rant over.