Affordable Care Act undermined by false beliefs that undermine humanitarian values

[caption id="attachment_17150" align="alignleft" width="300"] Learning about health care options[/caption]

Carol Forsloff---After living in Hawaii 28 years, a journalist has perspective on health coverage, given the way the State has functioned with its insurance programs and coverage. There are good reasons why Hawaii ranks #1 in health factors, much of it having to do with the availability of health care.

In Hawaii every employer must provide health coverage for employees who work 20 hours weekly or more. The State also has a program for the poor, so that they too have coverage when they are unable to work or are otherwise in need of health care maintenance.

For 28 years, unless there was a job specifically with insurance coverage, I was unable to leave the State. That's because of preexisting health conditions from a long-term and life-threatening illness that occurred when I was 35. Individual insurance was either not available, and I was declined, or so expensive that it would have meant a choice between food or health care.

In Louisiana every presentation from a politician around the State focused on the negatives of the Affordable Care Act when it was first proposed and watching and listening to “plants” in audiences and vetted questions so that no one was allowed to question speakers, all offering those negatives, brought information to this journalist that there were planned techniques to undermine almost any decision made by President Barack Obama.

Much of the continuing spread of those negatives has to do with the psychology of all of us. When we hear criticism constantly about anyone, even if the individual being criticized is a close friend or relative, we begin to question our beliefs. After all, how can so many people who differ with us be wrong? In addition there is also the dictum that it's harder to believe the truth when it's told after a falsehood has spread,

The statement from Republicans that focused on undermining any decision made by Obama has made not just a difficult environment within the political party but a toxicity of belief that has permeated almost every social issue in America. That includes guns, women's rights, immigration and health care. Those who oppose the loudest voice are shouted down indeed. That means truth is never read or heard by the larger number of people.

Indeed as some of the media has declared, the mainstream television, radio and newspaper stories seldom, if ever, offer an positive information about the Affordable Care Act, even when there are many stories of people receiving health insurance who were denied health insurance when they desperately needed it most.

Surely the Affordable Care Act has snags, but so did Medicare and Social Security when these programs were first unveiled. And those programs met with many of the same criticisms---primarily by those who used the words “Socialist” or even “Communist” in relationship to them. But there was not the concerted effort, vocalized by leaders of the opposition, to undermine completely any of the President's ideas at the time. Targeting an individual repeatedly will eventually wear down the public good will, as it has in the case of Barack Obama. And this means from both left and right, especially in the more extreme areas of the spectrum of each party but reaching into the moderate groups as well, because those who scream the loudest and the longest become the message most heard and believed.

If young people do not join the program, and others don't who believe the worst about it, then the program will fail for sure. And those who had hoped that everything Obama did would fail would have met their objectives, stated objectives as they were. That will inevitably lead to folks looking for an alternative, and where else will they look but among those who will say, “I told you so” when the program fails entirely.

Indeed a recent letter from Rush Limbaugh to his public says this, “If you believe in government, you should be furious about Obamacare’s incompetent rollout: A fiasco that could haunt progressives for years to come.” – Headline, “The New Republic,” Nov. 14, 2013

“If this goes down, if health care, the Affordable Care Act, is deemed a failure, this is the end – I really mean it – of liberal government, in the sense of any sense that government as an instrument of social justice, an engine of economic progress, which is what divides Democrats from Republicans – that’s what Democrats believe.” – Mark Shields, “PBS News Hour,” Nov. 15,

28 years in Hawaii was not a negative experience, but the lack of health care opportunities prevented me from moving on to independent work, a full-time private practice in counseling and a strong area of journalism opportunities as well. It is the choice many people must make when they can't lose their jobs for fear of losing health coverage they couldn't otherwise get. And the lack of the option will cause needless suffering and death, all arising from the false notions that Obama be defeated at all cost, thus undermining the humanitarian value of good health for everyone.

Help the poor by action, change of attitude

Samantha Torrence - Charity, compassion, love, and help; those were the four virtues I was looking for when I walked into the local welfare office.   But what I got instead was bureaucratic aloofness, an attitude I believe should be changed if we really want to help people in need.

This was six years ago, but you don’t forget that kind of experience.  It makes you recognize that the poor person of today was me yesterday and may be me tomorrow, or you.

My family was in dire straits, my husband was having a hard time getting a full- time job, and I had a baby and just could not in good conscience give him over to a stranger to raise. I did not find those virtues in the face of the social workers at Job and Family Services.  What I did find there was the source of stress that would age me over the next 6 years so I would look well past my youthful 28 years old.

The welfare office is a cold place, where people scrutinize your entire life and shame you by their every action and intonation. They do not have any type of connection with the people they help, and you are shuffled to another social worker before you can build a relationship. It is a cold place, and that is where the scorn begins.  That was certainly how I felt.

Once you are out in the world with your life line of cash assistance or a food stamp card you are subject to the stares, the glares, and the resentment of those around you.

You can read online what people think of welfare recipients. They should be sterilized for the good of the country; they should subject themselves to drug testing; and damn it, they shouldn’t be able to buy steak with their food stamps!

You also find out a few more things while you are on food stamps; once you are there you are stuck.  If you make just one dollar over the amount you are allowed, you are cut off with no warning.  You have nothing then and everything you worked hard for starts slipping. Eventually you are either forced to cut back hours to get back on the food stamps so you don’t have to pick between food and electricity, or you eventually lose everything and are forced back on them again.

There are also realities within the system, like lazy caseworkers, or burnt out caseworkers, who hold people’s lives in their hands. The enmity they feel towards the downtrodden has secured in their hearts a cold place where they detach themselves from reality and allow families to go hungry for a month or more while they wait on approving their applications. And God help you if they lose your paperwork, because then you are blamed for their mistake and the entire process has to start over.

An individual or family has to deal with a hurtful attitude in a maze of uncaring, bureaucratic snafus while they are on welfare, as if being poor was not enough of a hardship.

This system is a symptom of what is wrong in America. America no longer has a heart, for that surely is how it feels.

Surprising right? Normally when you hear people advocating for welfare it is because they want to help the poor, and the children, and the elderly, but is that their whole intention? I have watched America for quite a while as a citizen of this country,  and I have come to the conclusion that people support welfare out of guilt and not much else.  Guilt is what motivates the charity rather than love. Guilt because you are too busy doing wine tasting, or socializing, or jogging at the gym, or a myriad of other privileged social activities that means you are too busy to go help.

America has lost her charitable spirit and that includes everyone in the political spectrum. They take the lazy way out and advocate throwing a few tax dollars at a poorly run system to only people at the very bottom of the muck pit.

So how do we fix this? Well, Charity begins at home.  You have to start small if you want to save the world.  You have to start in your heart. You have to quit disparaging the poor. Everyone does it in his or her own way. Whether you are looking down on the inner city ghettoized minorities, or the poor white folk of the south, when you do that you are part of the problem.   If you are thinking ill of the black girl with three kids and each having a different daddy, or looking down on Earl with his beer and pizza sitting on his porch and cleaning a shotgun, you are a part of the problem.

So grab the problem out by the root. Take that pity you feel and make it compassion instead.  Quit thinking your tax dollars are helping; that alone is not a long-term answer.   Those tax dollars are simply sustaining them in perpetual poverty. Start by doing little things. Smile at people you see with the food stamp card, or heck even anyone on the road.  Start saying “Hello” and mean that smile as a wish for a great day.

There are thousands of ways to help people in the grasp of poverty, but our society is too far beyond the big changes that need done. So just start with trying to find true love for people, true compassion, true caring. It cannot be found in a protest sign, it cannot be found in a wad of cash, and it cannot be found in legislation and taxation.

Compassion can only be found in your heart, and can only be shared through personal action.  For me it is the action I try to take every day, the first step not putting in my mind that the poor person I see is “less than” because in that person I remember me and worry it might be you, because I care.

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Editor's Note:  Samantha Torrence is a mother of four children, and caring for a younger sibling as well, while her husband serves in the military in the Middle East.  She brings, as our guest for this article, a refreshing, honest appraisal of a personal experience to enlighten the rest of us on how we need to treat the least of us.  This young woman's talents and good heart are reflected in her choice of topic, and Green Heritage News welcomes her contribution today.