Change (Finally) Has Its Day
My social networks were all a-buzz last night – everyone had something to say about #hcr. Health care reform. And well we Americans should be talking about it, because last night when the health care reform bill eked its way through the House, it marked a tangible, bona fide change. Not just rhetoric this time around. For better or for worse, some major changes are just around the bend.
I didn’t join in the buzz last night that was storming Facebook and Twitter. Every substantive thought that crossed my mind had already been tweeted a thousand times over. Even now, the only thing I can add is this: Thank you, Congress, for finally getting around to this issue, because it’s about damn time America joins the ranks of the industrialized world. For years the United States has held the proud distinction of being the only industrialized nation in the world without a universal health care system, and our system has underperformed unequivocally against the systems in place in the likes of Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia (according to studies performed by the Commonwealth Fund).
Why have we dragged our feet on this issue for so long, at every point on our political spectrum? Why, even now, is the health care debate such a divisive one? To me, the answer is simple – access to adequate, affordable health care is a basic human right, and any nation that claims to be part of the free world should make health care universally available. If you want to know the true character of a nation, just look at the way that it cares for its poorest members, its “tired, [its] poor, [its] huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” Now where have I heard that before?
How is health care reform going to play out in the coming years? We’ll find out. I’m sure it won’t be a silky smooth transition. It won’t be without its failures. But what I am sure of is that America is finally moving in the right direction, and I only hope that our temperamental populous will see this one through to the end. Any country that overthrows its government every four years is bound to be focusing too closely on the short term. But let’s stay with this reform and make it work for everyone.
The following video is a clip from the pilot episode of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, a British sketch comedy show of the late 1980s/early 1990s. This sketch, parodying the idea of the privatization of the British police force, is hilarious and utterly absurd… but when I watch it in light of the health care debate that has shaken America over the last year and a half or so, I’m reminded that all good comedy is rooted in truth. So with that, I’ll sign off and leave you in the hands of these two brilliant gentlemen.
