It was the moment in the speech that you knew the pundits would quickly pounce on: “You lie!” someone shouted from the chamber on the President’s left. But this heckler, you knew immediately, could not really be on the “left.”
Turns out it was Joe Wilson, Republican congressman from South Carolina, who couldn’t contain himself when the President insisted that illegal immigrants would not be covered under his health care plan. Wilson, apparently, just didn’t believe it, and his explosive ,”You lie!”, probably gave voice to what many in the room (and in living rooms everywhere) were also thinking.
But Wilson quickly apologized, avoiding — he must be hoping — a protracted spotlight on an action generally considered to be very bad form. (We’ll see how much fuss the morning news shows make of it all; Wilson may have his fifteen minutes of fame after all).
But what about the statement that drove Wilson to explode as he did? What about illegal immigrants and health care?
It seems that it’s a given — on both the left and the right — that these 11 million or so human beings, who are subject to the same capricious forces of bad luck and bad genes as are the rest of us, simply do not deserve to be covered because of their status as illegals. End of discussion. To raise the matter would be political suicide, even for the most Kennedy-esque of liberals.
Maybe part of the argument is that the lack of documentation would make administering health coverage for immigrants a bureaucratic nightmare. But since most undocumented workers use emergency rooms for routine illnesses and injuries, how exactly does allowing this to continue serve the larger bureaucratic goal of eliminating the waste and massive overspending now bloating the system?
Quoting a letter that Senator Ted Kennedy wrote to him a few weeks prior to his death, the President tonight raised the question of our character as a nation. What does it say about our character, he asked, when those without insurance “have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent — there is something that could make you better, but I just can’t afford it.”
What does it say about our character as a nation that health care coverage for the people who clean our toilets and take care of our children, who pick our produce and flip our burgers, is simply off the table? that it’s a political non-starter? that not even Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow can get worked up over this one?
I like and admire President Obama immensely (see previous post). Many people do not (see previous post). I thought he gave yet another knock-out speech tonight. His closing appeal to our better natures, drawing on the life and legacy of Senator Kennedy, was rhetorically brilliant. And it was moving.
But if this whole debate does come down to our national character, and I believe it does, then who are we and what have we become when it’s the heckler — and not the critically important issue he highlighted — that gets all the attention.
September 10, 2009 at 10:51 am
That repeated mantra — “illegal immigrants will not get health care” — has irked me every time I hear it. The american mentality simply cannot fathom INCLUDING people. There is always line drawing going on which designates who is worthy of being treated like a human being and who is not.
September 11, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I agree, Michael. It’s also disappointing that there seems to be no outrage about this from people of faith–Christians, Muslims, Jews, others. That’s hard to understand.
September 12, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I must say I am torn about this – although I believe that immigrants are humans who do the dirty work so many of us would disdain to do ourselves – I question automatically or fully including them in the healthcare debate. I want so much for reform and fear that including this group would be too much of a hot button issue that would in turn result in nothing being done at all. One argument would be that b/c many aren’t paying into the system then they would be an added cost burden. Many are already claiming this when talk about including the uninsured in coverage or not excluding preexisting conditions – that these folks would drive up cost. I have a sister who has a preexisting condition and I am fearful she will end up in a job or situation with not great health coverage that would result in severe financial hardship – although she is finishing her college degree she has spent years working minimum wage jobs just trying to get by yet dealing with her health condition that requires $$$$$ drugs (which is another issue) and I have a brother that actually does have health insurance but the coverage isn’t great – he is responsible for 50% of his bill so a recent episode that required him to have 3 stitches cost him 200 at an urgent care. And frankly I am concerned about myself – I provide coverage for myself and my children and would like to change jobs but I have to find a job with decent coverage. This means that although I would like to work parttime I most likely will need to work FT to have better health coverage. So it is a complicated picture already dealing with those among us that are citizens let alone those that are not among us. I am not saying in a perfect world that I would want to exclude anyone but feel is we are going to see change we must start the process somewhere.
September 12, 2009 at 9:44 pm
And one more thing – I am a health care provider – Nurse Practitioner to be specific and work for a national practice that offers some solutions – right priced services at convenient times and locations. But I see my colleagues over worked and over stressed b/c they have to see more and more patients just to make the bottom line work for the practices b/c the insurance companies and Medicare and Medicaid keep cutting reimbursement – so they are expected to see more b/c they are being paid less all the time. That is the scary thing about the public option if it ends up being similar to the other govt funded health care. Are the politicians ready and able to really change the system – pay for performance or good outcomes rather than procedures? Put more money into prevention instead of treating the results of no prevention? Recognize the 125000 plus nurse practitioners seeing patients everyday in primary care and other settings as being equal in needing payment as MDs – as we are providing the same services and equal if not better care (as proven by research) . …
September 13, 2009 at 12:12 am
You make some good points, Sara, and it’s good to hear from someone who works every day in the reality of a broken healthcare system. And I’m especially struck by your comment about pay inequity between doctors and nurse practitioners–the hierarchy of prestige (doctors as gods; nurses as “servants”) is hard to break. But it’s an outrageous fiction nonetheless.
And that raises the whole issue of the for-profit character of modern American medicine, which has contributed mightily to the crisis we’re in. I heard Dr. Andrew Weil talk about this the other night: why do we call it an “industry” (as in healthcare industry); we used to think of medicine as a healing art, as a practice rooted in community.
And you’re right about prevevntion. Did you see Michael Pollan’s piece in the New York Times this week? Until we overhaul the “food industry” which is making us fat and unhealthy at earlier and earlier ages, we will not really be able to reform healthcare in any meaningful, lasting way.
About the immigrants: Christians, at least, should be not be asking “am I happy with my healthcare coverage?” but rather, “am I happy with my neighbor’s healthcare coverage.” This is not a question that policy makers will ever ask, but it ought to be the kind of question that would stir the imagination of people of faith and move them to some kind of action. We don’t seem to be pondering it at all. In fact, it’s as if it’s never really occured to us to consider such a question.
September 13, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Hi Debra,
I like the questions you pose at the end in your last comment “about the immigrants.” I’m reading “The Rise of Christianity” by Rodney Stark. Stark suggests that the early church grew during the great epidemics that occurred in about 165 and again in about 251 A.D. He believes the reasons for the growth had to do with Christians commitment to caring for each other and for those outside their community of faith. Pagan religions were focused on the individual – me and my gods & I must take care of me; while Christianity’s focus was on loving God AND the neighbor. Christians took big risks to care for the sick. Pagans isolated themselves. Christians who brought the sick to good health early on, were repaid by those who they healed when they themselves became sick. Pagans who survived respected and got to know Christians who cared for them during their sickness and many converted to this strange new sect where people were loved unconditionally by their God and who in turn loved their God AND their neighbor. They took to heart the teaching in verses like Matthew 25:45. Paganism died. Christianty grew. Seems like there must be a lesson in there for us today, huh?
Thanks for your post. Keep making us think!
Nola
September 13, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Thanks, Nola. See, your Campbell education is already paying off! And people think Church history doesn’t have any relevance! Seriously . . . this is a great reminder of how Christians in other eras have embodied a counter witness to the status quo. Twenty-first century American Christianity is so deeply coopted by the narrative of individualism, the market economy, etc. that it’s almost impossible to think (and to live) outside those forces.
September 14, 2009 at 10:17 am
I appreciate your points Nola and Debra but I would ask what would be the nuts and bolts of your discussion – how would this be implemented in today’s world – where we are today in the context of the healthcare debate. I am less of an abstract thinker and more of a concrete thinker and find sometimes that discussions of theology and Christianity are more of a theoretical discussion and I would benefit from some concrete recommendations.
September 14, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Sara,
I don’t know what the nuts and bolts would look like as public policy. But one example of how these ideas are given embodied form is the relational tithe. Here’s a link: http://www.relationaltithe.com.
September 14, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Just glanced at the website – very cool – look forward to looking into it in more depth! Thanks!
September 16, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Hi Sara, I agree it is easier for me to think about this abstractly than it is for me to put those thoughts into action. I look forward to checking out Debra’s link, too. Thanks. Nola