Monday, June 15, 2009

Isn't it amazing how the stupidest things will start a large debate. Today Larry and I went grocery shopping after running errands. I had to pick up the normal things like bread, milk, half-n-half, etc. Larry wanted to get the makings for Chicken Fajitas that he's going to take to his friend. Oh, news flash.....Larry has found himself a wonderful man that he is very smitten with. So we look for the ingredients.....peppers....onions......chicken.....Fajita seasoning. The glitch, the store only carried one type Fajita mix. It had a picture of beef fajitas on it. Larry got very upset and said we had to go to another store. I, at that point, had had enough of shopping and just wanted to go home. I looked at Larry and said Fajita mix is Fajita mix. It doesn't matter if it's chicken or beef, they are the same spices. He wasn't buying it. Nope, he was adamant that only chicken fajita mix would be good in chicken fajitas. So we went to the other store where I looked at the ingredient list of all the fajita packages.....I even tried to show him....they were the same. His response, "The ingredients are used in different proportions." How can you argue with that logic? It doesn't say how much of this or that was included, but because it had the word and picture of chicken on it, it was somehow different.

Which brings me to today's thought. The Republicans are now gearing up all their energies to combat the latest Democratic plan for health care reform. The President is proposing a $313 Billion dollar overhaul to our medical system. In the scheme of things that may sound like a hell-of-a-lot of money. But if we're talking universal health care for all Americans, this is just a drop in the bucket.

Right now Americans have the most expensive health care system in the world. Right now at least 50% of Americans can not afford the health care they have. Right now over 30% of Americans have no health care. Many of the elderly have to choose between medication and food or other necessities.

Next to the oil industry, the insurance corporations have the largest pure profit margin. Considering that most Americans who have insurance have to follow the insurance rules on what is covered and what is not covered, how can having a universal health system from the government be any different? The truth is, the insurance corporations are heavily lobbying the Republicans, because they know that a universal government sponsored insurance plan would drive them out of business. They don't give a rats ass about the public's health or how much medical costs have sky rocketed, they care about their profit margins.

Wake up Americans!!! Just because the packaging has different words or pictures doesn't make it different. Government sponsored health care isn't going to be any worse than insurance company sponsored health plans. We already have it.....Medicare/Medical. Many children are covered by law under government sponsored health plans. It's time we stood up against big corporations and did what is wise not what we're told to do by the Republican party naysayers.

If every other civilized nation, i.e. Canada, England, Ireland, Germany, France, etc. can cover their citizens with adequate and quite good health care systems, then we should be able to also. If we all contributed up to 3% of our pay into a government health care system, every American, and then some, could have free top notch health care. Considering what we are paying now to insurance corporations for health coverage, we would have a significant savings in our weekly pay.

It's time we stop believing the packages and start reading the ingredients. That goes for our government also. Now, it's time to go make fajitas. Chicken or beef, your choice.