I’ve been meaning to write this post for a number of days and either haven’t gotten around to it (like a lot of my posts lately -new houses simultaneous with new babies are not conducive to blogging, people) or otherwise just haven’t done it. Not that I haven’t tried or made a few false starts, but, like a lot of my posts, the idea for this post has bounced around in my head for a while and it’s just needed a catalyst to get going.

My catalyst here is the first 30 seconds of this vide0, where a woman waving an Obama “Stand Together for America” sign shouts out against all of the “selfish people” she apparently sees as being in between her and some free chemotherapy, or something. That video is the catalyst, because, to some degree, it ties together the different pieces of this post idea.

Now, a catalyst is not the same thing as inspiration, and the inspiration for this post started with a couple of similar, but slightly different posts I’ve seen on Facebook lately. I’ll keep the names anonymous, because this post isn’t about the people themselves, it’s just about the statements they’ve made.

Here is the first one (made while posting a link to a “the only way to fix healthcare is to turn it into the DMV and anyone who disagrees is doing so only for craven political reasons” op-ed in the Dallas Morning News):

It seems all I ever hear is ‘what’s in it for me?’ This disturbs me tremendously.

And here are the comments:

John M. Greene: Disturbs you how? That the author wants “free” healthcare or that other people disagree on its necessity?

July 23 at 10:30am

————————-

ORIGINAL POSTER: I agree with the author, God-forbid any of us have to pay for something for the greater good, just because it might affect THEM in a negative way.

July 23 at 10:36am

————————-

John M. Greene: Ahhh… I agree with you – people should be more charitable and take better care of the less fortunate among us. No argument here.

July 23 at 10:48am

————————-

COMMENTER #2: I don’t know…most people are pretty darn charitable and just don’t bother talking about it in public.

July 23 at 4:06pm

————————-

ORIGINAL POSTER (clearly exasperated): I’m not talking about charity, I’m talking about taxes, and their benefit to society at large.

July 23 at 4:14pm

Because taxes are for the greater common good and people who are opposed to taxes are selfish and just don’t want to help people. Got it.

Let’s try this from a different direction. Here is the other Facebook post, this one being a friend of a friend responding a question about her health. I didn’t respond to this, because I don’t know this person and, I dunno, it would have been rude to pick a fight on someone else’s wall:

I am tired of hearing all of these people in opposition to meaningful healthcare reform. I am also tired of paying almost $800 a month for barebones coverage when there are so many other things that I could be spending my money on, especially when the people who are opposed are people who could easily afford to have their taxes raised to help other people. We elected Barack Obama last November and need not be afraid of real hope and change in this country. This topic is just too important for us not to fix things.

So, I’ll ask again, just who is being selfish? Is it not selfish to covet someone else’s wealth – and endorse the government taking it and giving it to you – because you don’t want to spend your own money? Just whose responsibility is your own health? And if we have a duty to one another to take care of one another (and I think we do), then let’s do that, but let’s do it ourselves and literally take care of each other. It’s not compassionate to just sit back and endorse the government emptying your neighbor’s wallet because you think it’s horrible that prescriptions cost too much money and you really need a vacation. The government is not omnipotent, nor is it our proxy or are elections an excuse to pass the buck.

Look, it’s been few weeks since I made a meaningful blog post, but back in July I was writing almost every day about the healthcare reform topic and here we are 6 weeks later and nothing has changed. A vast majority of people in this county have insurance and are satisfied with it and only a very small percentage of those who don’t have it truly can’t afford it or be insured. And the thing is, we already have programs in place to help those people.

But- but- but- what about people with preexisting conditions? What about people who lose their jobs? What about the children?

Well, some of those problems could be fixed through some sort of policy change (especially the ludicrous employer-endorsed part), but generally, the answer to that one is to take care of yourself beforehand and don’t sit back and wait until there is a problem to complain that there is a problem. We’re not quite to the point yet where people are routinely denied coverage on congenital factors (yet), so all preexisting conditions were at one point new. Do you know what happens when someone has insurance and a new condition pops up? It gets fixed.

What’s so unreasonable about making existing insurance plans easier to obtain, harder to lose, and more responsive to people’s needs, and what part of any of that requires letting the federal government be in charge?

Similarly, you want to have kids? How about waiting until you can actually afford to have one and take care of him or her, including making sure that you can afford to pay to visit the doctor?

It’s not that hard, nor is it particularly selfish to point that out.