Revised Letter

the revised version of my letter to the Texas Senators...

TO:

John Cornyn,

Kay Bailey Hutchison,

Dear John Cornyn,

Recently a prominent politician (a member of your party) went before the American people and proclaimed the US health care system to be “the best in the world.” His words were not true. Why he said them—whether he is uninformed or confused or whether there is another explanation—I leave to you.

I write you now as the son of a loyal and patriotic American, a veteran of World War Two, a man who has always paid his taxes and (until his health declined) voted in very election, a man who believes in his country and who believed that his country would treat him fairly when he retired and when he was hold. Indeed, you could say that the country made a promise to him, a promise which has now been broken.

We are not talking about getting something for nothing. We are talking about an agreement between the government of the U.S.A. and my father, an agreement which said that if he contributed to his retirement while he worked, he would receive the care he needed when he was too old to work any longer. My father kept his end of the bargain, but the government of which you are a part has been shamefully remiss.

Then, again, I erred above when I attempted to portray my father in a way that you would find sympathetic, trying to convince you that my father deserves help—as if it were necessary to provide proof that any human being deserves dignity and respect. The idea that a human must prove his or her worthiness of respect is a foul piece of ideology that stinks to the high heaven. And, in any case, this demand is only placed upon those who are not rich, while the most wealthy and powerful citizens have the equivalent of a “automatic pass”—their wealth and the unbridled power it buys are sufficient proof of virtue in this false and degraded system of value.

My father is eighty-five years old and he needs home care. Today he receives only a small bit of help—a Nurse’s assistant bathes him twice a week and a Nurse checks his vitals once a week. My mother is eighty-four years old and has incurable health problems, yet she has been taking care of him. As I am younger and healthier I have been living with my parents and helping them, but I cannot continue to do so without endangering my own hopes for a decent future.

In essence, I have, for nearly a year and a half, been doing the job that Medicare should have been doing. And I have been doing it for free. I have been covering up for the inadequacy of the US health care system, making up for the government’s failure.

My father has Parkinson’s, and in recent months his health has declined. He cannot even get out of a chair or bed without help.

My mother has severe arthritis, as well as a degenerative condition in her spine which makes it difficult for her to walk. For two years my mother was unable to get the pain care she needed, something she needed to perform her daily activities like cooking and cleaning. And, even, today, when she is finally getting pain relief, our health care system is so stingy and burdensome that she must constantly return to her doctor to acquire proof that she needs pain relief, and she regularly faces the anxiety that the pharmacy might not fill her prescription in time, the fear that tomorrow she will be incapacitated with pain on account of the inefficient and troublesome system which places an infinity of roadblocks in the way.

Things do not have to be this way. There is no law of God or economics that says things have to be this way. And I don’t say that because I read it in a book or some so-called expert told me so. I know this because I have experienced a different system, one which is not so onerous.

For many years I lived in Slovakia, a formerly communist country, a country which is not so rich as the United Sates. And, I did have to rely upon their medical services, and use a Slovak hospital when I contracted pneumonia. After being hospitalized, and using the services of specialists, I did not have to endure the paperwork and the seemingly endless bills that I have seen my parents struggling with every month. My hospitalization was free and the only serious cost I incurred was lost income on account of missing work beyond the yearly allowance of sick days. The medicines were inexpensive, and I never had to fight the sort of battle I see Americans face everyday at my local Walgreens. (“Did my insurance pay for the medicines my doctor says I need?” Can you prove that this medicine is really for you?—insulting and insincere paternalism!) I did not face the sort of obnoxious bureaucracy my elderly and weak parents must fight in order to achieve basic medical care.

So, anything I say to you now is coming from my personal experience.

It is shameful that a small country like Slovakia is more generous than the U.S.A. If Slovakia can avoid the torturous bureaucracy, then surely the U.S.A. can. If Slovakia can provide medicines to its citizens at reasonable prices, then surely the U.S.A. can.

No, the United States does not have the best health care system in the world. And, now I am not talking about the fact, and it is a fact, that some twenty odd countries do better in terms of results, while being less expensive than our system. Now I am referring to a fundamental lack of humanity. The U.S. system is a cold system, a system without a heart. People are treated badly. They do not receive the respect they deserve as human beings. In this Health Don’t-Care System, you are, in effect, guilty until prove innocent. The burden—repeated and unending—is on the citizen to “prove” that he or she is ill, that he or she needs care. That demand is, in the first place, disrespectful, but also onerous and excessive. It is as if the purpose of the system were not to help people keep their health, but something else entirely.

The problem is not individual nurses and doctors and other professionals. The problem is not the individuals. The problem is the system.

Recently I have discovered another evil in this less-than-best health care system—so-called “Estate Recovery”. Were my parents to get more help than they currently receive, upon their death, any money or property they left behind would be seized by the government-As if my father and mother had not already paid into the health care system!

Understand me well: My father and mother have worked hard all of their lives, and now you reward them with suspicion and distrust. They only need and expect what any person of their age reasonably expects from a country which they have served faithful and honorably. Whatever sum they may have managed to save in their lifetimes is small compared to the resources available to you, let alone the resources available to those wealthy individuals who are your actual manners, individuals whose relative contribution to this society’s pie is puny compared to that of my parents and millions of Americans like them. You mock every notion of justice and fairness when you require that my parents and other Americans prove their worthiness for medical care. You insult their hard work, their contribution, their faith in their country.

And you, together with your colleagues, are hypocrites as well, since you receive medical care far better than the average citizen.

Unlike the merchants of war who you fund so generously, and with so little oversight, and unlike the cunning and sophistical gamblers of Wall Street, my parents and millions of ordinary citizens have made a real contribution to the life of this country, and a contribution to peace and goodwill among nations.

Now, through “Estate Recovery” you repay them with an insult. You demand that they pay a third time for what they have already earned by payment and the generosity with which they have lived their lives.

“Estate Recovery” is unnecessary and mean-spirited. Universal medical care is neither technically impossible or too costly. However, it does face many hurdles of a practical sort—above all the confusion of America’s legislators, who have forgotten that they are supposed to serve all of the people, preferring instead to serve at the beck-and-call of the wealthiest in the country, a de facto aristocracy, a ruling class with no moral compass and not the least tincture of justice, a group, moreover, which does not contribute a fair share of taxes or anything else.

Shame on you. Shame on every legislator and politician who has forgotten that their job is to serve every American, preferring to toady before the wealthiest—a shameful and ugly spectacle.

Sincerely yours,

Mark J. Lovas