what to do

I am sorry if this is another political post, but I have to process these thoughts. It is of course, about health care reform.

In our 24+ hours together in the wilds of Alaska, Catherine and I solved many problems of the world. And she brought up a very valid point about why health care costs so much: torte law. In other words the lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drives their malpractice insurance through the roof. I know of doctors that pay $5000 a month to cover just their insurance against someone suing them. Ridiculous. That is $60,000 a year just for that.

So maybe the lawmakers need to be looking at the laws they are making and decide if this is really going to solve the problem.

Shifting gears. A few months ago Carter asked me about why some people do not have health care. I told him for various reasons but it boiled down to a lot of them being job related. Either you do not have a job with benefits, or you do not work, or you choose not to have health insurance, or you can't afford your part of the premiums, or you are waiting for benefits to kick in or whatever.

I told Carter that we were very fortunate to have health insurance. I do not have to hesitate to take any of my kids to the ER for an accident of any kind because that is 100% covered. My prescriptions that enabled my hormones to level out to get pregnant with Olivia were covered almost completely. I have well visit checks and vaccines covered. I sleep easy at night knowing this.

I also said it is not fair that some people don't have it. My own mother does not have health insurance. However, life is not fair. And life is a series of cause and effect consequences.

To illustrate how we ended up with a job that provides benefits I asked Carter a series of questions that followed JaDee's career path backwards. I asked, how did dad become an engineer? College.

How did he get to college? Good grades in school.

How did he get good grades in school? He studied and did his homework.

How did he know how to have good study habits? He did his homework in elementary school.

Then Carter asked a question, "So to be able to take care of his family, Dad like had to make good choices in 1st grade?"

Pretty much.

Now before you cry privilege to JaDee's white male status you have to know that his parents did not have health insurance. They were farmers. Every broken bone (4 on Mitchell alone) every leg brace, every time JaDee or AshLee almost died from an allergic reaction to something (and you should hear her bone chilling tales of rushing to the hospital and making it just in time and how JaDee was even allergic to the carpet so his mother had to staple cotton sheets to the floor to keep him breathing) staph infections in bones, appendicitis, 3 hernia operations and several hospital stays for pneumonia, a premature baby, and a near fatal bout with pre eclampsia were all paid by Brent and Darlene.

In fact, Darlene is known to joke about it took until JanaLee was in kindergarten to pay of her birth (the one where Dar was in a coma and didn't even name her daughter when the baby was released from the hospital).

What I am trying to say is that in a capitalist free society we are allowed to choose and make mistakes. And with that freedom and choice comes consequences. Some of which are tragic, sad and not fair. Some consequences are rewarding and a result of hard work.