Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Bottom Dollar: How Much is Too Much for Healthcare Reform


The Ultimate Price: The Bottom Dollar in Healthcare Reform

The most recent victims of our states radical cuts from the state’s Medicaid Rolls, the –wheels are now in motion. Tennessee’s decision to eradicate yet another class of TennCare / Medicaid recipients of The Daniels Class, 140,000 social security recipients are currently in the process of being recertified to determine their eligibility for Medicaid. This waiver was requested and granted as a measure to limit the number of Medicaid recipients the state would be forced to cover under federal law.

As a result, 140,000 people like myself may the healthcare we fought so hard to obtain. The poor, the sick and the elderly. The disabled residents of Tennessee. We will now join the ranks of the other 47 million Americans without health insurance. More people that will be forced to rely upon the federal government because the individual states have failed them. Shifting the burden once again. But somebody has to pay.

So the discussion has gone round and round and round again just to find the right place to dump the costs. From private to public and then back again. Upon the shoulders our children and the conscience of a nation.

But we need to determine where and when we draw the line. We need to decide on the bottom line and just how much we are willing to gamble on our individual welfare and the health of our nation. How much is it worth. $1 Billion $7 Billion? $700 Billion? Do we value our healthcare more than our vehicles or our homes? Companies that profited by institutionalizing predatory lending bankrupting families, communities and the country as a result.

To be clear, WE ARE ALL PAYING!

I can assure you once you lose your ability to have faith in yourself to be faced with the brutal reality of the failing safety net we call Social “Security,” material belonging and personal property have lost all monetary value. And when that moment comes, you realize you have already paid far too much.

To be clear, YOU ARE ALL PAYING. Yes, all of us are paying some price.....

Where is the safety net? Where is the American Dream that I so diligently chased after for so many years? What was the point spending so much on an education that will never be utilized? I understand the how; I just don't understand why.

Elyssa Durant
Nashville, Tennessee

1 comment:

Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M.