Nothing quite so highlights the gulf between the 0.1% of income earners in this country and the other 99.9% than the issue of affordable health care. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) spoke of the Affordable Care Act yesterday, and commented that presidential candidate Willard Mitt Romney’s position on women’s health was “absurd.” [LVSun]
For the record, here’s the clip to which Senator Reid was referring:
The crucial part, with some parsing:
Q: I’m just wondering where you would suggest that the millions of women who receive their health services, such as mammograms, and HPV vaccines go?
ROMNEY: Well, they could go wherever they’d like to go — this is a free society. (1) But here is what I say, which is the federal government should not tax these people to pay for Planned Parenthood. (2) There are a lot of things that we have in our society that we may like, that we might not like, but that government should not be paying for. (3)
(1) Let’s assume that Governor Romney really means what he says, at least for that moment, and that “they” references the inquiry about the millions of women who are assisted with health care needs by Planned Parenthood and other Title X supported clinics. “…they could go to wherever they’d like to go…”
Yes, and if given their choice I’m reasonably certain that they would like to make appointments at the Mayo Clinic, or failing that to make an appointment with some of the finest clinics and physicians offices in their regions. The significant point is that Governor Romney assumes that because this is a free society, the ladies are perfectly “free” to shop until they drop for health care services.
This is the point at which F. Scott Fitzgerald’s opening from his 1926 story, “The Rich Boy,” becomes pertinent: ‘‘Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”
Yes, those women with which Mr. Romney is most closely associated could shop for all the health care available, any time, any where. If they need top rated gynecology treatment there’s the Mayo Clinic (Minnesota), Johns Hopkins Hospital (Maryland), and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Massachusetts). Money is no object — if a women with the resources of the 0.1% of income earners in this country needs pre-natal care for a complicated pregnancy, then all options in this “free society” are on the table for her. Travel isn’t a problem either, their geography is also “different from you and me.” This is a free society, and the 0.1% and the 0.1% are “free” to travel to the best medical assistance this country has to offer.
There are many other women in this country for whom “shopping” for health care isn’t an option.
“In 2009, over 43 million people in the United States lived with incomes below the poverty level, representing 14.3 percent of the U.S. population and reaching the highest rate since 1994.1 More than 16 million of those were women aged 18 and older, accounting for 13.9 percent of the adult female population.” [MCHB]
The questioner was referring to the 16 million women (13.9% of the adult female population for whom the term “shopping” for health care services may very well not apply. Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to Governor Romney that the woman (a) doesn’t have transportation to a clinic any distance away because there is only one family vehicle, and it may be in use by a family member who needs to get to work, but then if your wife has a “couple of Cadillacs” this wouldn’t be a problem; or (b) doesn’t have the financial resources to shop among a variety of health care providers because a free or reduced cost clinic is the only source in her neighborhood she can afford.
Shopping for health care is a luxury not available to at least 16,000,000 women in this country.
(2) There’s something confusing about the pronoun in this next section: “government should not tax these people to pay for Planned Parenthood…” Who are “these people?”
One way to interpret this is to assume Governor Romney means ‘people who are opposed to abortion in any circumstances and do not want tax dollars to flow toward Planned Parenthood.’ If this is what he meant then this is a slippery slope indeed. Pacifists don’t care to pay taxes to support the military establishment, conservationists may not care to pay taxes to subsidize the oil companies, and some tax payers don’t want their contributions to be sent to private charter schools. The underlying utilitarianism of American government presupposes that we are all going to chip in for some items we may not need or even agree with, but we go along because the foundation of our government assumes we want to do the greatest good for the greatest number.
(3) If you can shop for your own security service, why bother with the concerns of local law enforcement concerning wages, working conditions, benefits, and recruitment of personnel? If you can afford to shop for the best schools, boarding or day, why be concerned with funding school nutrition programs? If you can shop for the best health care services, why be concerned with funding Title X clinics?
Unfortunately, Governor Romney’s mindset doesn’t fully grasp the reality of the 99%. Most of the country doesn’t shop for security services, they depend on the local police force. Most of the country doesn’t shop for educational institutions, they send their youngsters to the local public school. Most of the country doesn’t shop for health care services, they depend on local providers and for 16,000,000 women in this nation they need Title X and Planned Parenthood clinics.
The ultra rich among us may shop for choices among health care providers, those in more straitened circumstances may have to make a choice between health care services and other family expenses.
‘‘Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”
Desert Beacon 