We Are All Worthy, Jon!

Earlier this very day, my Furriners colleague seemed to take a little shot at Jon Stewart. Just by coincidence, I also have a qualm with the esteemed host of The Daily Show. (And this is a post which I reckon will not win me any fans... unlike my many Derek Anderson posts which, by the way, are award eligible.)

In the past couple weeks, Mr. Stewart has had (for a lack of better phrase) a little burr in his bonnet about the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 - commonly known as the 9/11 First Responders Bill. Mr. Stewart has called it "literally the least we could do."

Fair enough...

...however, I could not help but recall an interview from last summer that Jon had with Bill Kristol regarding our nation's health care system. The topic came up of how veterans are covered under the V.A. (socialized medicine) and that they receive this as a benefit for their service to the country.

It included this excerpt:

Jon: Are you saying that the American public shouldn't have access to the same quality health care that we give to our better citizens?
Bill: Yes. To our soldiers? Absolutely. I think if you become a soldier, you deserve...first class health care.

As Mr. Kristol said that, literally a gasp came over the audience at how outrageous is to say that the general public is not worthy of the same quality of health care as soldiers.

Hmmmm... I get the feeling I am not making a persuasive argument...

so let me put it another way.

I assume that most of these First Responders have health insurance, correct? Safe assumption I think we'd all agree (and even if they didn't, this would presumably fall under Work Comp for most). So why is there even a need for such a bill to cover the medical expenses of these men and women? Should not their respective health insurance companies be picking up the tab on these expenses? What... are these expenses too much of a drag on their profits so we have to go to the taxpayers to pay these bills?

So, okay... fair enough. I am actually fine with some of my tax dollars going to cover medical expenses of our nations populice - but I just wish I could get in that myself. Single-payer... Medicare For All...or even Public Option... whichever form it takes, I would just like people to recognize that all of our citizens, living our lives, doing the best we can, are also worthy of having our medical needs met.

And, by the way, yes, I am uninsured. By choice. Because I don't want to give money to the any of the greedy, morally bankrupt (and very much not financially bankrupt) private insurance companies.