Health Care and Pre-Existing Conditions

I have shied away from the ongoings of the public health care debate. I deemed them too heated, too beliggerent to even give it a second thought – let it be and this too shall pass. An article on Newsweek.com that I happened to read a few moments ago, reminded me of the importance of vigilance when it comes to politics, most especially when it comes to health care. The article was about the need for the President to reframe his Health-Care debate, Obama needs to reframe health-care debate, and I quote:

“As the health-care debate rages, it’s the Party of Sort-of-Maybe-Yes versus the Party of Hell No! The Yessers are more lackadaisical because they’ve forgotten the stakes—they’ve forgotten that this is the most important civil-rights bill in a generation, though it is rarely framed that way.

The main reason that the bill isn’t sold as civil rights is that most Americans don’t believe there’s a “right” to health care. They see their rights as inalienable, and thus free, which health care isn’t. Serious illness is an abstraction (thankfully) for younger Americans. It’s something that happens to someone else, and if that someone else is older than 65, we know that Medicare will take care of it. Polls show that the 87 percent of Americans who have health insurance aren’t much interested in giving any new rights and entitlements to “them”—the uninsured.

But how about if you or someone you know loses a job and the them becomes “us”? The recession, which is thought to be harming the cause of reform, could be aiding it if the story were told with the proper sense of drama and fright. Since all versions of the pending bill ban discrimination by insurance companies against people with preexisting conditions, that provision isn’t controversial. Which means it gets little attention. Which means that the deep moral wrong that passage of this bill would remedy is somehow missing from the debate.“

“Sec. 111. Prohibiting Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions

A qualified health benefits plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion (as defined in section 2701 (b) (1) (A) of the Public Health Service Act) or otherwise impose any limit or condition on the coverage under the plan with respect an individual or dependent based on any health status-related factors (as defined in section 2791 (d) (9) of the Public Health Service Act) in relation to the individual or dependent. ” – H.R. 200 (Health Care Bill as proposed by the Government on July 14, 2009).

 

Say NO to domestic violence

With the case of Bridges TV founder, Muzammil Hassan, and Rihanna and Chris Brown, domestic violence is again on the forefront. Mr. Hassan is accused of murdering his wife, Aasiya Hassan, because she had filed papers for divorce. Chris Brown is alleged to have attacked Rihanna after a dispute. As these are high-profile cases they dominate the newspaper headlines and people all over feel the need to comment on them. On the typical gossip pages like Perezhilton.com to the comment fields following a revered newspaper article, comments range from showing full support of the victim of the domestic violence to faulting them for aggravating the attacker to attack them.

In the case of Mr. Hassan, commentators felt that the attack was a form of honor killing, citing Mrs. Hassan’s betrayal of her husband (by divorcing him) as the reason behind killing:

“Nadia Shahram, who teaches family law and Islam at the University at Buffalo Law School, explained honor killing as a practice still accepted among fanatical Muslim men who feel betrayed by their wives.

“If a woman breaks the law which the husband or father has placed for the wife or daughter, honor killing has been justified,” said Shahram, who was a regular panelist on a law show produced by Bridges TV. “It happens all the time. It’s been practiced in countries such as Pakistan and in India.”"***

Rihanna, on the other hand, had it coming as she too was perceived to be the aggressor in the incident. If she had not enraged Chris Brown, she wouldn’t have been beatened. Thus, it was her fault too. She should’ve known better.

 

Change

As softly as a wind rustling the grass, making them bend in place, or as fast and strong as a storm charging at trees forcing their once sturdy branches to twist and even break off, change happens, change is inevitable. But then is it change of who we are that we see or just a change in our priorities? Is the change that occurs manipulation, a change by force? Or a realization of what really matters? Why are we so afraid of change when we should embrace it, for it is through change that we grow, that we progress as individuals and as a collective society.

I fear that our habits as adults have put us in a place where any perturbations to our cycle sets us off on a tirade, at times a gossipy-hateful chastisement of whoever was unlucky enough to bother us. We are used to our ways, in synch with our rhythm, and don’t anybody dare to mess with it lest they desire our wrath. We forget how everyday, we encounter experiences that will move us just a little bit askew of the rhythm we have gotten used to. And this is not only theoretical, it is also biological. Our brain is more plastic than we know: all the wirings of our neurological system undergo changes every minute for as we learn a new thing our neurons become ablaze with excitement.

We are programmed for change.

 

Wicked: Come back to DC!

 

Mommy Crush

We came home yesterday just in time to enjoy an evening stroll around the neighborhood. Living in a complex of townhomes has its perks, like say meeting up a fellow neighbor on the sidewalk and actually striking up a meaningful conversation, albeit terse and succinct. I actually got to a name, Amy, and her son’s name, Xavier. He was lounging behind a bug net in his stroller casually sucking his fore- and middle finger. Xavier is only 9 months but has rolls of chubness that little Bubba will never see due to his inherited genes. Sorry little Bubba. Momma gave you the skinny gene.

What brought me, the worrywart insisting that there is a boogeyman lurking in every corner of our neighborhood, to want to come out and actually enjoy the remaining daylight with big and little Bubba? I saw my Mommy Crush. Yep, my Mommy Crush.

 

So Small

As I typed the last sentence of my research paper, I remembered a video I recently saw online. The lyrics and video of the song reminded me of an insurmountable impasse that appeared to us today–an impasse we have faced numerous times before and one that we will forever face.

In the video you see a mother and daughter arguing. The tension was so strong that the daughter decides it was best for her to leave, so she packs her bags and walks out the door. You see her walking along the side of a stretch of an empty roam, most likely bemoaning her predicament and the hatred she feels for her mother. Seconds later, a car approaches from the left side. It must be the mother, you think. She has come for her daughter. The girl looks at the car, and robotically, with a blank face, she steps in front of it. The driver, a woman, looks horrified and swerves instantly to avoid hitting the girl. As she swerves, another car comes into the scene from the opposite end. Though the driver of the first car does miss the girl, she ends up coming face to face with the oncoming car, both cars locked in for a head-on collision. As the two cars engage in their tango, the girl looks on in horror.

The heads of the two cars finally touch and both collapse onto themselves in a tangle of metal and broken glass. Shards of glass flit about everywhere and then freeze mid-air to the surprise of the drivers and the girl. Time is at a stand-still. The woman drive remembers her silly argument with her little girls and husband, the man recalls fighting with his girlfriend, and the girl is reminded of the spat she had with her mother. They all remembered how big the situations were, how it consumed them body and soul, and how they just had to get away, get away for some time or for forever so they won’t have to face it again.

They remembered.

 

And we start at “hello”.

Here again, I welcome another blog. Will this one last longer than the numerous others I have created? Time can only tell.

Well then, let’s get started…

 

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