When did we as a society become so mean?
Keep in mind that we live in a country in which 86% of all people claim belief in a single God. Fully 78% of the population claim to be Christian. All of us are surrounded by people who call themselves Christian. And yet, despite these numbers, we seem to be succeeding in creating a decidedly un-Christ-like country.
The following letter went viral on Facebook last week. It was supposedly a letter to President Obama:
Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.
It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD
Now, some of this checks out. There is a doctor named R. Starner Jones, MD, and he did write a letter. But it wasn’t a letter to the president, and the above letter has been augmented and exaggerated from the original letter to the editor of the Clarion, Mississipi Ledger, which was published on August 29, 2009. It is entirely possible the doctor himself could have rewritten it, but frankly, the original is bad enough:
Dear Sirs:
During my last night’s shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate tattoos, a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B tune for a ring tone.
Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid.
She smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer. And our President expects me to pay for this woman’s health care?
Our nation’s health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture – a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.
A culture that thinks I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me.
Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow.
Starner Jones, MD
Jackson, MS
I don’t understand this sort of attitude; I really don’t.
But what I found more troubling was the number of people who seemed to “like” the sentiment as expressed in the above. Some folks actually went into a rant about how some people seem to feel “entitled” to things we somehow don’t deserve.
But see, folks, here’s the thing;
We all have a RIGHT to basic medical care. Yes, that’s right; you have a RIGHT to medical care. If you end up at the emergency room, you are entitled to at least enough care to relieve your pain and/or keep you alive.
I know, that’s a bad word to a lot of people on the right side of the ideological aisle. But just as they’re entitled to whine and cry about other people using “their” money, if someone gets sick or injured, they are entitled to treatment.
But there are several aspects of this that have really bothered me for about a week now., because they demonstrate just how mean-spirited we have become as a people.
The first is the sheer volume of the assumptions made in the “legitimate” letter above. The second is the tremendous amount of judgment contained in that letter. And finally, it’s the fact that ALL of the people who responded to this garbage when I saw it on Facebook were people who profess to be Christians and have never understood why I don’t feel the same way.
The first thing we should establish is that, odds are good that this woman works for a living. Most people on Medicaid actually do have jobs, and she obviously has disposable income. In fact, it’s entirely possible that she works very hard for her money, and she simply makes so little that she qualifies for Medicaid. And her cheapskate employer obviously doesn’t pay for health insurance for her. In other words, she’s making someone money, and she’s contributing to the economy, but her employer is opting to allow the taxpayers to pick up the tab for her health care. Yet, all of the judgment in this situation falls on her, not the employer.
The assumption that this woman has wasted so much money on “vices” that she has no money left to pay for health care is also ludicrous. What was she supposed to pay for? He doesn’t explain why she was admitted to the ER, and he doesn’t mention what she was treated for. For all we know, she could be a disabled veteran of the Gulf War, who is coming in for treatment based on old war injuries.
But because this doctor is able to fit her visual appearance into a convenient stereotype, a whole bunch of people are sitting in judgment of this woman. She apparently had one shiny gold tooth, a nice pair of shoes and she smokes a pack a day. Well, let’s examine that, shall we? I looked online, and a shiny gold cap can run anywhere from $50-150. Let’s say she’s really irresponsible, and buys a new one every year and pays $120. Now, the shoes are trickier, because I don’t know what is meant by “an expensive brand.” I shop hard for shoes, and I currently have two pairs of Reebok running shoes that I paid $50 for, including tax. That’s $50 for BOTH pairs. It’s not likely this woman shops at Footlocker and buys $200 shoes; more likely, she shops at a discount store in her run down neighborhood and paid less than $60. Let’s imagine she buys two $60 pairs a year. She works hard, and probably has to wear them to work, because her cheapskate employer sure as hell isn’t buying them for her. Therefore, though he seems to consider them a “vice,” I don’t understand how they qualify as such, so I’m including the cost of the shoes under protest.
She has some tattoos, although I’m not sure what the doctor considers to be “elaborate.” So, let’s say she has had three over the last five years, and they ran $200 each.
So, now we get to the two “vices” that we all agree are phenomenal wastes of money; smoking and drinking. I know what you’re thinking; at $6 a pack, she’s wasting a whole lot of money that could be used to pay for heath care. She’s a bad, bad woman, right?
Well, it’s not as bad as you might think. See, folks, this lady and her nosy, judgmental doctor live in the state with the third-lowest cigarette tax in the country, so she probably only pays about $3-3.50 per pack for her smokes. And he mentions beer, almost in passing, which would seem to indicate that she wasn’t in the ER for alcoholism. And since she probably works for a living, more than likely she has a beer or two after work, and maybe a couple more beers on the weekend.
So, assuming the worst case scenario, she spends an average of $10 a month for her gold tooth, $10 a month for her peachy keen running shoes, about $10 a month for the tattoos, maybe $40 a month for beer, and about $105 per month for cigarettes. That’s a whopping $175 per month total. And that’s if I exaggerate her spending habits a bit.
How much health insurance can she buy with that, even if she was pure as the driven snow? The average individual policy currently runs about $700 per month. If she has a family, that premium is currently about $1,300 per month, on average.
I’d say she’s a little short.
In fact, MOST people are short of the amount necessary to buy health insurance. The fact of the matter is, every single person who I saw agreeing with the sentiment in this letter only have their health insurance because their employer is paying most of the premium every month. And don’t feel bad, because most of you are in the same boat.
Look at your paycheck, folks. If your employer stopped paying its portion of your insurance premium, how would you fare having to pay upwards of $15,000 a year to cover your family?
You are covered because you are LUCKY. Why don’t people understand this? You don’t have what you have because of hard work; chances are, people who work a hell of a lot harder than you have nothing, financially speaking, because that’s how capitalism works. People who work the hardest don’t make the most money; those who are best able to exploit hard working people make the most money. That’s not cynicism, that’s reality.
In the situation laid out in this letter, we have a woman who is likely toiling at a job, for someone who pays her as little as they can get away with and providing zero benefits. It is also likely that her employer is making tons of money and is happily allowing us taxpayers to pick up the tab for expenses that other employers pay for their employees. See, that’s how our capitalism has changed over the years. We allowed the right wing to run things for years, and they proceeded to ship all of the good jobs overseas, they refused to allow the minimum wage to reflect reality, and they looked the other way while employers hired illegal immigrants for cheap labor. We love being able to shop at Wal-Mart and Home Depot for cheap crap, but we don’t seem to understand that there is a cost to those low prices.
If you feel the need to bitch at someone, don’t bitch at the woman with the gold tooth and the nice sneakers who smokes and drinks beer because she qualifies for Medicaid. Bitch at the employer, who is quite possibly, if not probably, makes more in a month than she makes in a year, and makes US pay for her health insurance.
By the way, any Mississipian who is bitching about HIS taxes going to pay another’s health care should shut the hell up. Mississipi is the poorest state in the union, which means more citizens of Mississipi are in the same position as this woman than the citizens of any other state. Medicaid is a FEDERAL program, and Mississippi currently gets back $2.02 for every dollar they pay in federal taxes. What that means is, if you insist that tax money is YOUR money, then at least be aware that those of us who live in blue states outside of Mississippi are paying MOST of this woman’s health insurance, so you have nothing to complain about.
If you want to look at this woman’s health care the way this letter does, then I feel it necessary to point out that she’s actually paying a significant portion of her own Medicaid costs by buying cigarettes; quite possibly more than this doctor is paying. The federal tax on a pack of cigarettes is $1.01. The Mississippi tax on cigarettes is the second-lowest in the country, at a whopping 17 cents per pack. It seems to me, if Mississippians really gave a shit about making people with bad habits pay their own way in this world, they would tax them more for their bad habits. Why is this doctor complaining about this “irresponsible” woman, when he lives in one of the most “irresponsible” states in the union? If the rest of us weren’t paying so much of their way, the entire state of Mississippi would be a basket case.
Yes, there are some poor people who game the system and get tax money without hard work. Big fricking deal. While people like this doctor whine and cry about them, we have huge corporations who are gaming the system for a hell of a lot more tax money in a day than your stereotypical “welfare mother” will get all year. And states like Mississippi are subsidized 100% for the federal tax money they pay in, so that the companies operating there don’t have to pay a decent wage, and no one has to pay as much in taxes as they receive. In other words, Mississippi (and honestly, every other red state) are basically welfare queens.
I am just getting so sick of self-righteous prigs imposing their view of their own superiority upon others who aren’t as lucky as them. Unless you are one of the few people who read this who have millions in the bank, everything you have came to you as a result of hard work AND LUCK. And some schmuck who supposedly works as an ER doctor should know that better than anyone, because chances are good that he’s seen someone who’s been unlucky enough to contract a disease or be hit by a car or become injured on the job and lose everything they have worked for in their lives up to that point. Nearly every single one of us is one paycheck and/or one health insurance premium away from disaster. We all think we’re insured, but the fact of the matter is, up until the end of last week, when the first of the health insurance reform plan kicked in, your insurance company could just jettison your ass, with no notice, for any reason it chose. If you don’t know someone who’s had to fight with their health insurance company to get bills paid, then you need to get out more. Nearly half of all bankruptcies cite medical bills as a leading factor in their bankruptcy, and two-thirds of those people have health insurance.
You have insurance because you’re lucky enough to have an employer who provides it, and who pays most or all of the premiums. And if you thought you had full coverage for any eventuality before “Obamacare” kicked in, then you’re fooling yourself. You’re lucky, and don’t forget it.
I want to end this column by beseeching self-described “Christians” to start acting like one. I am not a Christian, meaning that I don’t think Jesus is God, or the Messiah, or any of that. I think the Bible is a story book, not a history book. But regardless of how I feel about the religion, the philosophy of Christianity is what I live by, or at least try to. It’s a great philosophy, in which you treat everyone with dignity and respect. This doctor (and I have no way of knowing whether or not he is religious – I’m simply playing the odds) and the people who virtually “high fived” his sentiments (all of the ones I know of profess themselves to be Christians) are not following the teachings of their very own chosen religious icon.
Jesus encouraged his followers to be non-judgmental, to be humble and to spend their lives helping those who aren’t as lucky as you are. Yet, it seems as if his loudest followers have no concept of what it is they profess to believe. They yell about their Christianity to everyone they come in contact with, and then proceed to beat them over the head with it. They judge people constantly, with the judgment being made in near-total ignorance of and/or total disregard for the facts. And instead of being humble and grateful, they are loud and boastful. And they seem to always support the rich and denigrate the poor. And they are far too moralistic to be Christians. Jesus never condemned anyone, yet too many of his followers are quick to do so as often as possible.
The poor need our help, not our scorn. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “there but for the grace of God go I…”
Well?
If you claim to be religious, and you even begin to to agree with the doctor who wrote that, might I recommend that the next time you find yourself in your favorite church, or looking up to the sky and asking God for something, that you thank Him for everything you have, and ask forgiveness for passing judgment on people simply because they don’t have as much as you. And while you’re at it, try picking up a goddamn Bible and reading it for a change. You might be surprised at what you find.
