Letter to Editor: Women Deserve Better than Sean Duffy

Posted on November 2, 2012 by danineAdmin

My letter to the editor in support of Pat Kreitlow for Congress has been posted at the Wausau Daily Herald:

EDITOR: Vote for Pat Kreitlow for Congress because Wisconsin women deserve a congressman who will fight for us in Washington.

We deserve better than U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, who voted to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides vital health services to thousands of Wisconsin women each year. We deserve better than Duffy, who voted 30 times to overturn the Affordable Care Act and wants to force women, including women on Medicare, to pay expensive copays for preventive care and contraception.

We deserve better than Duffy, who is “100 percent pro-life” with no exception for rape or incest.

We deserve better than Duffy, who cosponsored a bill with Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin that originally would have redefined rape as “forcible rape.” Akin recently said women don’t really get pregnant from rape because “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting the whole thing down.”

We deserve better than Duffy, who endorsed state Rep. Roger Rivard, who told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that some girls “rape easy.” We deserve better than Duffy, who voted against the Violence Against Women Act.

Wisconsin women deserve a strong advocate in Washington. Kreitlow believes decisions about a woman’s health should be made between a woman and her doctor. Kreitlow believes, as President Barack Obama said recently, “Rape is rape. It is a crime.”

We deserve better than Sean Duffy. Vote Kreitlow on Tuesday.

Visit Pat Kreitlow for Congress for more information and don’t forget to vote!

After Oak Creek

Posted on August 6, 2012 by danineAdmin

I am horrified by the shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek. And I am so, so sorry for everyone who has lost a loved one.

I hate that this shooting happened in Wisconsin. Wisconsinites are supposed to be better than this. We are not the kind of people who shoot people while they are worshipping. But apparently we are, because a gunman, a resident of Cudahy, Wis., took firearms into the Oak Creek temple and deliberately massacred six people.

I’d love to call this shooting the actions of a lone, “deranged” person, but I can’t. Six innocent people died yesterday because there is a culture of fear and hate in this country. To be blunt, far too many white people are afraid of non-white people (black/Latino/Asian/native/Muslim/Hindu/Sikh). Admitting fear is weak so we hate instead. White Americans have channeled their phobia of our non-white neighbors into hostility since the Puritans landed at Jamestown.

As I read history, it seems like white Americans (“Americans” being residents of the continental United States) are always afraid the non-white people du jour (Native/African slaves/Texas Mexicans/African-Americans/Asian-Americans/Latinos…) are going to kill them. Or take “their” money/jobs/land. This fear seems to be the cause of so many of our wars: between the colonists and Native Americans, the Mexican-American War, and even the Civil War. It is responsible for the atrocities of slavery and Jim Crow.

Today, we pretend we live in a post-racial society at the same time as we pass immigration laws like SB 1070, pass ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws, and enact new ‘concealed carry’ legislation, all of which are designed to keep the “good guys” safe from the “bad guys”.

You figure out which is which.

Enough.

We cannot afford to lose any more lives to this war of fear. The six people who died yesterday did not deserve to die. If we assume, and yes, I know the folly of assumption, but if we assume they were killed because the gunman perceived them to be “The Other”, that is, not white. Therefore, not American.

This mentality is wrong but unfortunately, extremely common. How on earth do we change this?

Update: Edited “brown” to read “non-white”. After publishing, I realized I probably didn’t have the right to use that term.

Wheelchairs Are Not Toys

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Danine

While my relatives were here last week, we took the kids to the local children’s museum. I was sitting with the three year-old, who I’ll call Jon*, in a little alcove while he played with a super-cool medieval castle, knights and even a few dragons. After a while, a little boy, perhaps seven or eight, came in pushing himself in a wheelchair. I became a little bit flustered. What would I say to Jon if he asked about the boy with the wheelchair? I wasn’t sure how to explain to a preschooler that some people need to use wheelchairs for mobility. I didn’t want to just say, “His legs don’t work so he needs a wheelchair” because what if the boy had a heart problem or what if he could walk with crutches or a walker but couldn’t walk long distances? That would apply in either case or a hundred others.

I was really frustrated with myself because I didn’t know what to tell Jon. I didn’t want to offend the other little boy by saying the wrong thing because I know that non-disabled people say stupid things about disabilities every single minute of every single day. While I was trying to figure it all out, the boy got up out of his chair to get a better look at his train exhibit and then sat back down. Now I definitely didn’t know what to tell Jon about the boy’s disability. What kind of condition did he have that allowed him partial mobility? Luckily, the boy soon wheeled himself around and left the room. Jon had been so engrossed with the knights and dragons that he never even noticed the other boy.

Later on, I was exploring the museum with Jon’s five year-old brother, Don*, when we visited the “medical center” exhibit. This included a dentist’s office, doctor’s office and exam area, surgery area including a cloth “cadaver” that the kids could open up and look at the body parts, and a hollowed out ambulance with flashing lights that actually worked. (Don loved this.) The medical center was pretty cool and I thought it was one of the best parts of the museum.

However, I have one major complaint. The exhibit also included two wheelchairs that the kids could sit in and push themselves around in. Yeah. It was about then I noticed the boy from the other room walking around without any difficulty. He had just been “playing” at being disabled. Other children treated the wheelchairs like toys, too. The museum had a couple of bikes sitting around for the kids to ride and they played with the wheelchairs in the same manner as the bikes, as if they were a moving toy that they could tire of and cast aside. And that’s the problem.

Wheelchairs aren’t toys. For people living with paralysis and other mobility impairments, wheelchairs are a vital lifeline to independence. But society doesn’t see wheelchairs that way. They see them as a sign of dependence, something the “wheelchair-bound” or those “confined to a wheelchair” have to use. In fact, the children’s museum reinforces this prejudice by teaching kids to associate wheelchairs with hospitals and sickness.

There was no education about the wheelchairs. The kids weren’t taught about the wheels, locks, handles or footplates. They didn’t learn about who uses a wheelchair and when and why. Forget about people with disabilities. They didn’t even learn about why they might need to use a wheelchair at the doctor’s office or hospital. All they learned was that it was a chair propelled by wheels and that when they were sick of riding in it, they could hop out and move on to something else.

It all just gave me an icky feeling. It felt disrespectful to all the kids who can’t jump out of the chair when they decide they want a different “toy” to play with. Pretending a wheelchair is a toy felt disrespectful to all the kids for whom a wheelchair means the independence to move from room to room at home and school. They can hang out with their friends on the sidewalk and the playground.

When you have your own wheelchair, you control where it goes. You are in charge of your own movement, even if you can’t control your body. In other words, Wheelchairs are serious business. They aren’t symbols of dependence but independence. They aren’t toys.

While I had a great time at the children’s museum, the wheelchairs in the medical office exhibit were a huge missed opportunity for kids to learn about disability.

Here are a couple photos of the medical center exhibit, which I “borrowed” from the museum website:

* Since we’re fast approaching the premiere of Mad Men, I went with “Jon” for Jon Hamm and “Don” for Don Draper.

Every Day Should Be World AIDS Day

Posted on December 1, 2009 by danineAdmin

Today is World AIDS Day 2009, a day to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS worldwide. We pause to remember the nearly 600,000 Americans who have died of this horrific disease and pledge to help those living with HIV/AIDS. The CDC estimates that more than a million people are living with HIV/AIDS and that number is growing, with 56,300 new infections in 2008 alone.

World AIDS Day is observed on December 1st and has been every year since 1988 when the World Health Organization marked the occasion as a way to “to raise awareness and focus attention on the global AIDS epidemic.”

Every year, we trot out the red ribbons (see above) and alarming statistics. We pay lip service to the cause of fighting HIV/AIDS but are we actually making real progress at fighting the disease?

I know I’m not doing my part.

In middle and high school, I volunteered for the AIDS Resource Council of Wisconsin and was a member of their Teen AIDS Prevention Program (TAPP). TAPP was a small group of peer educators who went to local schools and community groups. We talked to middle and high school kids about what HIV/AIDS is, how you get it (direct contact with blood, semen, vaginal fluid or breast milk), and how you don’t get it (You cannot get AIDS from Sammy peeing in the school pool. Nope!)

We explained that you need to take universal precautions when dealing with bodily fluids that transmit HIV. We explained that giving and receiving blood is safe, that the Red Cross screens all blood for HIV.

We also talked about sex. We talked about the fact that abstinence is the only 100% way of not getting HIV, but if you’re going to have sex, you need to use protection: condoms and dental dams. We demonstrated how to put a condom on using our for-demonstration-purposes-only dildo, Pete the Purple Penis.

Prevention efforts like ours helped. A study at Johns Hopkins found the HIV transmission rate has dropped 33 percent since 1997, the year I left for college and stopped working with ARCW. That’s great news. Still, when more than a million people in the United States and more than 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV, we are not doing enough to stop this disease.

Every day should be World AIDS Day.

Here in the U.S., we need to eliminate abstinence-only funding and teach age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education in every state and every school district. I was lucky enough to attend health classes in the Eau Claire, WI, school district, where health teacher Deb Tackmann constantly fought with the school board and the community to include real sex education in the curriculum: HIV/AIDS, STDs, teen pregnancy and contraception (including condoms).

Everyone needs to know this information. Here in Wisconsin, the legislature is considering the Healthy Youth Act (AB 458 & SB 324). According to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the Healthy Youth Act:

requires schools that teach sex education to do so in a responsible, comprehensive manner that includes information about abstinence and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancy prevention strategies, such as birth control and condom use.

If you live in Wisconsin, please contact your state senator and ask him/her to vote “yes” on the Health Youth Act (SB 324).

Another step we can take to prevent HIV/AIDS is to eliminate federal funding for abstinence-only education. After President Obama stripped abstinence-only monies from the federal budget, Senator Reid has included language in the Senate health care reform bill that will re-authorize abstinence-only funding for another five years. Call your representative and senators: Tell them to remove abstinence-only funding from health care reform.

We can also volunteer or donate to a local AIDS service agency. Check your yellow pages for one near you.

There is much more we can do to prevent HIV/AIDS here in the U.S. There’s no excuse; we should be doing it.

To learn more about the global AIDS epidemic and how it affects women, click here.

Wisconsin Healthy Youth Act (Comprehensive Sex Ed)

Posted on November 3, 2009 by danineAdmin

The following is an email I wrote to my state representative, Rep. Dan Meyer (R-Eagle River), asking him to vote for the Healthy Youth Act, which will fund comprehensive sex education in Wisconsin. More information is available from NARAL Wisconsin here.

Dear Rep. Meyer:
Please vote YES to pass the Healthy Youth Act. I know it will be an unpopular thing to do with your conservative base, but it’s the right thing to do for the youth of the Northwoods. Teenagers need comprehensive sex education in order to make good choices. I grew up in Eau Claire, where I learned about birth control, STDs, condoms and abstinence in my freshman health class. With all of those tools in my “knowledge” toolbox, I was savvy and self-aware enough to know that sex was an important decision. When I was ready, I knew enough to use protection so I didn’t get pregnant or an STD or HIV.

Please vote YES on AB 458. It’s so vitally important for teenagers to make informed decisions about their health.

Thank you,
Danine Spencer

I posted this because I wanted to demonstrate that it takes very little to write a note to your representatives and senators. I could’ve even used the link that NARAL Wisconsin provided above but I hoped that if I personalized my message it might have a bigger impact. It’s pretty easy to find your representatives both at the state and national level. Congress.org has a great tool that finds both your representatives in the state legislature and in Congress. Check it out here.

Earlier this year, I wrote a very short, two or three line email to my state senator, Jim Holperin, asking him to support the amendment to the state budget that legalized domestic partnerships in Wisconsin. I received a personally signed letter from Sen. Holperin thanking me for my email. It makes a difference if you contact your representatives and it’s easy to do so do it.

Central WI Anti-Choicers Go Crazy

Posted on September 24, 2009 by danineAdmin

Oh good grief. Take a look at this video from RH Reality Check (via the Campus Choices blog)

I just cringed when I watched this. I am embarrassed for Wausau and for Wisconsin. It is true: Wausau has a very strange (to me, anyways), conservative Catholic community. It’s very different than the Church I grew up in.

I never heard the word abortion in church when I was growing up. (I went to the Newman Center at UW-Eau Claire.) Instead, I learned that the point of Catholicism was treat everyone like Jesus would – with love, compassion and without judgment. (See Gospel at Sen. Kennedy’s funeral)

Somehow the Church has to get back to that. I don’t know how but it has to.

Socialized Medicine is the Devil's Handiwork

Posted on August 21, 2009 by danineAdmin

I’m on Medicaid. I have no problems admitting this or talking about it in public. In fact, I’ve done it three times now: in a local TV interview, at an Organizing For America-sponsored health care rally and at Rep. Steve Kagen’s recent town hall on health care.

Medicaid is socialized medicine. A short description from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:

Medicaid is available only to certain low-income individuals and families who fit into an eligibility group that is recognized by federal and state law. Medicaid does not pay money to you; instead, it sends payments directly to your health care providers.

Depending on state law, you might also have a co-pay. I don’t know how it is in other states but Medicaid in Wisconsin is excellent. It is there for people who need it, like me. Within a few weeks of becoming paralyzed in 2005, I applied for Medicaid. I was approved within a month. Medicaid retroactively covered my hospital expenses from the date of my application. It paid for two full weeks of inpatient rehab more than United Health Care had authorized. Those two weeks may be the reason I am walking today.

United Health Care had said I could have 20 outpatient physical therapy sessions and 20 outpatient occupational therapy sessions. Medicaid didn’t set a limit. I went to occupation therapy twice a week for five months and have regained all function in my hands. At one time, they were completely paralyzed. I went to physical therapy for eleven months and am walking normally again. At one time, I was a quadriplegic.

That’s not to say Medicaid just writes a blank check. The first year I was home from the hospital was a difficult one. My mom, who was my primary caregiver at the time, and I ran into a lot of problems related to my care we didn’t know how to handle, often late at night or on the weekends. After I ended up in the ER more than 10 times in less than a year, I received a letter from the state Medicaid agency saying I had reached my limit for ER visits. They gave me the names and numbers of my doctors (internist, neurologist, rehab specialist) that I should see instead of going to the ER.

I was thinking about all of this this past Monday. The regular clinic I go to is usually booked weeks (sometimes months) in advance so they have set up an urgent care clinic adjacent to the ER. This is a walk-in clinic; first-come, first-served. It is staffed by physicians’ assistants and doctors and I believe they charge the same as a regular clinic visit.

So Monday – I had been sick for a few days. I knew I’d never get an appointment with my regular doctor so I went to the walk-in clinic. I registered at the desk, where they confirmed my personal data, including my insurance, the “Forward card.” (Wisconsin had so many names for Medicaid it’s ridiculous – Medicaid, Medical Assistance, EDS, Forward Card, Title XIX).

The clerk told me I could have a seat. A few minutes later, a nurse called me into the triage area to take my vitals. After that was done, I went back to the waiting area. About five minutes later, they called me to go back to the exam room. Long story short: the entire exercise in socialized medicine, including the PA pulling up my records online, waiting for the lab work to come and having my prescription filled at the pharmacy (co-pay $1) took about an hour and a half.

Medicaid is socialized medicine. It is not evil. There is a place for it in our society. As for “government takeover of health care”, that’s ridiculous. The government had no role in my health care on Monday, except to pay the bill. They didn’t choose the clinic or physician’s assistant I saw. I could have gone to the other clinic in town. They didn’t tell her which drug to prescribe. She chose the one that was most appropriate for me, although the pharmacy did substitute a generic.

Prior to my enrolling in Medicaid, I had been on Blue Cross/Blue Shield or United Health Care plans for most of my life. The insurance chose which networks of doctors I could see. Medicaid does not do that. Doctors may choose not to participate in Medicaid but there aren’t many who do so. The insurance companies also had lists of drugs they would cover or not cover.

Rationing and government takeover on health care? Please. It’s far more likely to happen with private insurance and we all know it. Is this really about health care or is it about a few hundred Republicans’ job security?

When 14,000 people lose their health insurance every day, that seems incredibly selfish.

Kagen Town Hall: The "Illegals" Are Coming!

Posted on August 20, 2009 by danineAdmin

Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) answering questions at town hall in Minocqua, WI, on August 19, 2009

This morning I attended Congressman Steve Kagen’s health care town hall in Minocqua, WI. If you watch MSNBC, you’ve probably heard about Kagen’s first two town halls this summer, which were a little contentious. Since then, he’s had a few more town halls which seem to have gone better. In any case, I haven’t heard about them on Maddow or Countdown so progress, right?

Speaking of the divine Ms. Rachel, Dick Armey must still be smarting from the smackdown he got on Meet the Press last weekend. From what I could tell, most people attending were local; FreedomWorks had skipped this party. There were a few people from out of town but Minocqua is a popular tourist destination so that makes sense.

The “tone” was pretty subdued, quiet and respectful. I think this is partly due to the location. The event was held at the Campanile Center, which used to be a Catholic Church. It was kind of neat; on the quarter hour, somehow they got the bell-player-music-people to play patriotic music instead of the regular chimes. Coolio. (I can’t pull that off, can I? Shucks.)

The church (once a Catholic church, always a Catholic church) was about 75% full and rough half and half men and women, although probably a few more men than women. 90% were over 60 years old. I think I was the youngest person there. The town hall lasted for about an hour and 45 minutes and old men dominated the conversation. Only four men under 60 and five women (including me) total got to ask questions.

The great majority of the old men, except one or two, were opposed to health care reform. Strangely enough, they seemed to be more worried about the “illegals” getting free health care rather than the rising costs of health care, the millions who are uninsured or even the national debt.

One of my favorite questions/comments came from a gentleman who said “illegals” are 40% of the 47 million people without health insurance. He mistakenly believed the “illegals” would be covered under health care reform. “How can you support that?” he asked the congressman. Kagen replied, “I disagree with your numbers.” He said 2/3 of the uninsured are working families. When the man said health care reform is “going to raise our taxes,” Kagen had a very simple answer for him: “That’s not true.”

Another man said, “The government says we can’t round up all the illegals… When they come [for free care] why can’t they get picked up right then and there?”

A third attributed all the problems in our prisons, schools and health care systems to the “illegals”. A recurring theme was that if we just get rid of the ‘”illegals” problem, America would be hunky-dory. I had to laugh when I heard the guy behind me mutter, “If you deport everybody, you’ll have to pick your own tomatoes.”

Many people were upset about the “government takeover” of health care. As one guy (probably in his 30s) put it, “No matter [what you call it], it’s still socialized medicine.” Kagen tried to make the case for health care, but he wasn’t especially convincing. If I had been against health care reform, I don’t think he would have changed my mind. This may be due to his personality and demeanor. He seems to be quiet, polite and respectful, but I can’t see him doing the big stump speeches, rallying the crowds in a “Yes, we can” style.

Kagen said health care-related debt contributes to 2/3 of bankruptcies in northeastern Wisconsin, his district. A constituent disputed Kagen’s statistics. Instead, the man attributed a significant portion of bankruptcies to predatory lending by mortgage giants like AIG. Kagen’s reply? “I got my numbers from the (local) courthouse.”

(Genius. This is Wisconsin, not New Jersey. Except for Madison and Milwaukee, we all live in relatively smaller communities and most of us probably know someone who works for the state or local government. It’s much harder to say government is corrupt when it has a human face: your family, friends, neighbors, etc. So that knocked the wind out of the bankruptcy argument.)

After a particularly boneheaded rant against socialized medicine, I walked up to the front of the church, introduced myself and said,

“With Governor Doyle not running for re-election, we don’t know who the next governor will be and we don’t know what their priorities will be. We don’t know if they’ll keep funding BadgerCare and Medicaid at the current levels. So my question for you is, do you support the public option?”

And then Kagen hedged. He wouldn’t commit to the public option. Here’s the bottom line on Steve Kagen: He wants health care and health insurance reform. That doesn’t necessarily mean a public option. He repeatedly referred to a plan “whether you call it a public option or a co-op or something else”. He wants more investments in prevention. He wants medical providers to openly disclosure fees for all services.

My sense is that he wants a non-profit insurance plan that would be able to put patients’ needs ahead of profit. I don’t think Kagen really cares if it’s the public option, co-op or something like the Wyden-Bennett bill (if that had the necessary protections for patients).

I left feeling like Steve Kagen is an incredibly decent man. I briefly told my story and his eyes kind of popped out. (I had a spinal cord injury 4 years ago and I’ve recovered for the most part). He repeatedly told people he appreciated their comments or questions, even when they were belligerent or stupid. (Those are my words, not his.) He was assertive enough to correct people when they were wrong. By my count, this was his fifth town hall this month. If today’s event was one of the “good” ones, he must really be committed to communicating with his constituents about health care. In contrast, Dave Obey has yet to schedule a single town hall.

There’s lots more to tell about the town hall but it’ll have to wait for tomorrow when I can think clearly again.

About Last Night('s Health Care Rally)

Posted on August 13, 2009 by danineAdmin

Last night, I went to a pro-health care rally organized by Organizing for America. When I got there, there were lots of people holding signs and the crowd was mixed fairly evenly, half pro-reform, half against. Some of the anti-reform signs were hideous so I took lots of pictures. I had to laugh to myself as the pro-reform crowd tended to congregate on the left side of the grassy square while the antis were on the right. I don’t think this was intentional but it was still amusing, nonetheless.

When the rally got started, one of the first speakers was a woman in her sixties or seventies (I’m horrible about guessing ages). She talked about the thousands of dollars of debt she and her husband incurred when he had a lengthy stay at a long-term care facility. In addition to Medicare, they have a supplemental health insurance policy, which was supposed to reimburse them for their upfront costs, but of course, the insurance company never did.

While the woman was speaking, I heard a lot of murmurs and mumbling and grumbling behind me. I was pretty obvious the anti-reformers didn’t understand the moral of this woman’s story: the need to reform the insurance industry.

Another woman spoke who was a former mayor (or high ranking official) from De Pere, WI, which is by Green Bay. I thought she was pretty antagonistic towards the anti-reformers. She kept saying, “If you’re happy with the status quo…” and then throwing out statistics like, “In the last nine years, insurance premiums have gone up 90% for the average Wisconsin family.” I have no idea where she got her information from, as she didn’t tell us. It’s become a pet peeve of mine that people in positions of authority throw these fancy figures around to impress us and then expect us to believe them without batting an eye. Unfortunately, that happens far too often.

I digress. My apologies.

Back to the woman from De Pere. She wasn’t giving a speech. She was giving a lecture to the anti-reformers. It wasn’t effective because it didn’t open up the dialogue. When you talk down to people, they’re not going to listen to you. I’m fairly certain she did not change a single person’s mind about health care reform last night.

A local dental hygienist who is a breast cancer survivor also spoke. She and her husband, a veterinarian, buy private insurance at considerable cost to them. It’s very expensive but at least she has insurance. She was grateful she was able to receive treatment for her breast cancer. A friend of hers wasn’t so lucky. When she found a lump, she had to save for two months in order to have enough money to go to the doctor. The friend had to save money for another couple months to go back to have testing done.

The dental hygienist also told us about another friend who died several years ago because she couldn’t afford her seizure medicine.

Dr. Tom Gabert, an internist in Minocqua, WI, was the keynote speaker. (I looked up his name, heh. I apologize for not knowing the others.) He talked about reforming health care to make medicine more patient-centric not money-centric. He said money is always the number one topic of discussion when it comes to health care, not prevention or wellness. He told us about the countless patients who have asked him to lie about pre-existing conditions so they can get health insurance.

Dr. Gabert said many of his colleagues have left medicine because dealing with health insurance is so difficult. He added, “which is a form of rationing, by the way.” He went on to explain that the health care industry is driven far more by profit than by actual health care. For example, they (clinics and hospitals) make the least amount of money on women and children but they spend a lot of time wooing that demographic anyways. Why? So moms and kids convince Grandpa to come to their hospitals and clinics for hip replacements (and other old man stuff), which is profitable. Another example: the fancy helicopter services and heart care clinics being advertised on billboards, in newspapers and on television. The health industry spends big bucks trying to impress consumers to come to their clinics and hospitals based on their shiny new toys and pretty new facilities (sarcasm is mine) rather than spend money on keeping people healthy.

Dr. Gabert also spoke of the need for malpractice reform, which got big applause from the anti-reform crowd. They apparently think limiting the amount a doctor can be sued for medical malpractice is the magic panacea to the health care crisis. Good grief.

Another local physician, a pediatrician whose name I didn’t catch, spoke briefly about how important it is for kids to have health insurance. He said he believes Medicaid and S-CHIP are very good programs but unsustainable. He advocated a “Medicare for all” type of system.

The Anti-Health Care Rally

After the rally was over, the anti-reformers gathered on the right side of the square. I had been about to leave but I waited to see what was about to happen. Who doesn’t like a good train wreck, you know?

The first speaker was a middle-aged woman (I probably shouldn’t say that as she wasn’t that much older than I am). I couldn’t hear everything she said, but what I did hear alarmed, to say the least. A sampling:

“I don’t like Obama” after which somebody called out, “Where’s the birth certificate?” I only heard that once, though. Kudos to my fellow Hodags for (mostly) staying classy.
“I’m not against reform.” She continued on to say that she has worked all her life and put into the system. At this point, things got a little noisy and I honestly don’t know what she said next. I think she said she was entitled to her Social Security and Medicare but I can’t be sure.
She asked if anyone watched Fox News and Glenn Beck. She said she learned from watching Glenn Beck that if health care passes, Obama won’t cover babies up to two years of age. Yes, you read that right.
She brought up the “death panel” concept, saying that people over 65 wouldn’t have health insurance anymore. At this point, I raised my hand. All night, the need for civility and respect had been mentioned over and over. I didn’t want to be rude and heckle her so like a first grader, I raised my hand to ask a question. Since she brought up the “Obama wants to kill Grandma” idea that originates with the living will provision, I wanted to ask her if she had a living will. Of course, she never called on me.

The next person to speak was a man who said he worked with employers all over the country. He said employers were very concerned about health care reform, to which the anti-reformers cheered.

I couldn’t figure out why. Why did these people care more about employers and businesses need than what we the patients need? Aren’t we all patients and human beings first? When you get laid off, your employer doesn’t give a flying fig if you have a migraine and need Imitrex or that you still have cancer and need radiation. They just don’t care. What the heck are these people thinking?

Well, by then I’d had it. When the gentleman was done speaking, I saw my opportunity and took it. These people needed to know what the stakes were. They needed to know that socialized medicine wasn’t evil, that human lives, indeed, my life was more important than all of this insanity that’s been going on lately.

I walked up to the picnic table and stood up on one of the benches. I don’t have great balance so there was no way I was going on top of the picnic table. The lady who spoke first at the anti-rally saw I was wobbly and came to give me a hand. (I appreciate it. ) Everyone looked at me expectantly.

Here’s what I said:

Four years ago, I was paralyzed from the neck down. I was four months away from being kicked off my parents’ health insurance so I was eligible for BadgerCare and Medicaid. This is the face of Medicaid. (I whipped my sunglasses off, hoping it was very dramatic.) I understand the budget and financial concerns, but this is about real people. This is the face of Medicaid.

Without my prescription sunglasses on, I couldn’t see anything. I could hear some murmurs and grumbling, though. I hadn’t planned on saying anything so after I spit out those few sentences on impulse, I had no idea what came next. I got down from the picnic tables and left the rally. By the time I got to my car, I was in tears. I was angry at the anti-reformers and at myself.

I was angry at the anti-reformers for allowing their racist and paranoid thinking to get in the way of my life and death need for health insurance. Instead of just listening to Glenn Beck and Fox News, they should be doing their own research. Read the damn bills and proposals, particularly the parts that controversial or confusing. Try and understand why we need health care reform. Contact your congressional delegation, express your concerns and ask them to handle this responsibly.

Please.

Please don’t tell me we don’t need anything to change.

I was also angry with myself. I had the bully pulpit for a few brief moments and I felt like I wasted it. I could have used it to advance the conversation but I don’t think I did. I wish I would have said,

This happened to me. Medicaid paid for services private insurance would not have and kept me out of bankruptcy at 25. As I try to work my way off disability and towards self-employment, I need low-cost health insurance. I think a public option would be a good idea, in addition to employer-sponsored policies, private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and the like. I understand there are concerns about the budget and debt but simply saying no is not an option for people like me. Can we come up with another answer?

In the end, I don’t know what good will come of any of this. I wonder if I’m just needlessly stirring the pot by writing about my interpretation of last night’s events. I wonder if any of this is worth it.

This morning I had a doctor’s appointment in Wausau. It was a check-up and relatively minor. On the ride in and while I was at the doctor’s office, I was filled with a profound sense of gratitude that I do have Medicaid, that I am able to go to the doctor when I need to.

Someday, a day that I hope will come sooner rather than later, I will get off disability and Medicaid, but for now, socialized medicine has a place in society. It even has a face and it’s not some bizarre mockup of Barack Obama as Heath Ledger as The Joker.

I am the face of Medicaid. I am the face of socialized medicine. I am the face of health care reform.

It’s that personal for me and millions of other Americans.

We have to get it done.

Danine N. Spencer

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