Swim Until You Can't See Land

Our parents had a way of putting things into perspective-when something went wrong, from a house fire through a car crash to a loss of a job-they'd sigh and offer to no one in particular but to the world at large, "at least we (or he or she) have our health." And let's face it, when we were young, our interaction with the medical community was pretty much confined to what flavor lollipop the pediatrician would let us choose after the visit.

I'm so old I can remember Dr. Alice Tyndall making house calls. I never spent a nanosecond (not that I knew what one of those was) wondering how my parents paid for any of that. Health care was like dial tone and electricity-it was right there when you needed it. As I've grown older and wider (I meant to type wiser but my fingers think they're so funny) and we've gotten more callous and brusque in our interactions with one another, I've reached the conclusion that health care is like any other rationed commodity and is worth whatever people are willing to pay for it and then some.

I'm grateful I and my family (now just Sigrid and me) have health insurance through my employer who pays the lion's share of the premium while I have deductibles and other expenses maybe like you, though in light of the tens of millions of Americans doing without health insurance, maybe NOT like you. Am I happy when my costs continue to rise every year-of course not, and in my case I can't even fall back on 'at least I have my health' but my situation is still a damn sight better than many others.

The people we elected to represent us at the national level in our nation's Capital have been wrangling for about a year on as close to universal, accessible and affordable health care as we have ever been in our country's history. No matter where your philosophy and ideology has you sitting in terms of the center aisle, let's start together from a point that says 'this is desirable and something we should work together to do without further bankrupting ourselves.'

So now that we've decided we do want to go to Gradma's house, the discussion should turn to the route, and not who's driving, not who called shotgun, not what radio station we should listen to, not 'Mom, tell Bobby/Barbara to stop touching me!' before it all ends with Dad thundering 'don't make me pull over.' (And we're not even in the car.) I'm sure you'd agree the depth of the passions and the ferocity of the debate have been remarkable, and would be even more impressive if all of it had produced anything. We've had a lot of heat but very little light.

I dropped in and out of the online coverage of yesterday's Health Summit and caught a little bit on television during lunch. Did you notice when the TV cameras went to the wide shot in the room that the wall clock always showed 4? Was I the only one who found that less a coincidence and more of an omen? (Upside, of sorts, a stopped clock is right twice a day, which by my count was 100% more than anyone else in the room.)

I don't imagine the gathering that produced the Declaration of Independence or the Constitutional Convention that followed the War of Independence were all about peace and love all the time, but when you look at the results, you have to admire the effort. I didn't really ever feel that way yesterday and was confused a little because I was impressed that folks from different parties had so much in common-(perhaps) more than they had themselves realized, and yet around and around we went...

I don't pretend creating an affordable and equitable health care system is a walk in the park (at least not this time of year around here) but we need to stop the posturing and preening, across the board and get real and serious or vice versa. We selected you as the best of all of us to work on the recovery and rebuilding of a brilliant idea--government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth-and you have trouble agreeingon lunch order. C'mon!

If healthcare issue and the many other issus were easy--ANYONE could resolve them. We chose you because you promised us you'd do your best-when do you suppose that will start? We need to stop arguing over what kind of band-aid to give a patient needing surgery and grow up while we can still grow old. Tell you what, you keep the lollipop this time and call us in the morning.
-bill kenny