Flu Shots and the Incredibly Stupid American Public Health Policy

Last night I received a text from a friend who needed to cancel an appointment we had for this morning. He explained that he was way too sick to meet up and urged me to get a flu shot as soon as possible. This advice, coupled with the growing concern in the national media over what seems like a nasty strain of the seasonal virus, prompted me to go down the street to Rite Aid and get my first ever flu shot. Being the son of a historian of medicine, I also spread the word by encouraging others to get a shot over facebook (herd immunity= GOOD).

At the Rite Aid however I was faced with the ridiculously idiotic way in which this country “manages” our health.

I am 26 years old lucky enough to be married to someone who is eligible for private insurance from her place of work. The insurance is one of the major carriers, who joyfully collects their co-pay every time Molly and I do something medically related (which is thankfully rare). We do not screw around with our health and do not believe in taking chances with it.

While at the Rite Aid I picked up my wife’s oral contraception, which is now free from a co-pay thanks to a hard fought and for some reason (Fascist Catholic Bishops) controversial provision in the Affordable Care Act. I also thought that the Flu Shot, the most recognizable form of preventative healthcare for adults would also be either covered by my insurance or, given the current crisis, be free. I was wrong in this assumption and had to pay $29.99.

Now to some people I’m sure that paying thirty bucks to hopefully avoid spending a week or two suffering in bed/dying is a no brainer. However our household income depends on my wife’s salary and a small stipend from the federal government while I go to school. The stipend has not come in yet, Molly doesn’t get paid until next week, and the holidays wiped out our savings. In other words we are fucking broke- as in zero money to spend on things that are not absolutely essential.

Luckily for me my parents allowed me to borrow the small sum of money necessary to cover this expense, but this is a luxury that most people my age do not have. Most people like myself in this situation would probably roll the dice as there is only a relatively small chance that a young healthy person will become really sick from this virus. The inevitable result of this sort of predicament is the exponential spread of the disease as even asymptomatic individuals pass along the flu to everyone the come in contact with. An incredibly destructive and more or less completely preventible disruption to life and work in our society occurs because we as a country still think of individual health as a marketable commdity.

This is fucking dumb.

As you go out to dinner tonight, think about the people handling your food. They probably make just barely enough to cover their own food, rent, and other “necessary” bills. Unless they are unionized, they either have no employer provided healthcare or have a worthless and expensive private plan (and one that might disappear as many enterprisingly evil companies are trying to skirt the ACA). Think of the masses of people who your waiter, food runner, busboy, and line cooks come into contact with everyday. At some point those people will be exposed to the flu (or something else) and become very sick. As their job does not provide them with the resources to properly treat the disease nor the “benefit” to take a few days off to recover at home, these individuals will be forced to go to work. Your Caesar Salad will come with croutons and a delightful raspberry and influenza infused vinaigrette.

People will die from this flu and from a host of other diseases that could have been managed through a socialized and centrally managed healthcare system. This is not what “freedom is all about” no matter what the idiotic Ron Paul acolytes (or their enablers in the Republican Leadership) want you to think. This is downright suicidal.

So this weekend, get a flu shot and this year support efforts to unionize our workforce and to expand medical access to everyone in this country. And if any of your friends or relatives start blabbering on like Jenny McCarthy about “vaccine dangers” strenuously tell them to shut the fuck up.

Ron Paul Fans (Like Most Republicans) Have No Business Whining About Todd Akin

By now you have probably become aware of Missouri Senate Candidate and current congressman Todd Akin and his remarks detailing how women cannot become pregnant as a result of a “legitimate” rape (meaning that a pregnancy is actually an indicator that a woman must have enjoyed or consented to the act). Akin has since been roundly condemned by pretty much everyone, including conservatives (excluding hacks like Dana Loesch). There have even been calls by Republicans for him to withdraw from the race, although as of right now it seems that he intends on staying in the race.

Just to remind the pseudo-libertarian Ron Paul followers out there, here is your hero of “individual liberty” basically saying the same thing back in February:

And just to drive home the point, the kindly old doctor douchebag himself also signed onto that idiotic personhood amendment, which reads:

I believe that in order to properly protect the right to life of the vulnerable among us, every human being at every stage of development must be recognized as a person possessing the right to life in federal and state laws without exception and without compromise. I recognize that in cases where a mother’s life is at risk, every effort should be made to save the baby’s life as well; leaving the death of an innocent child as an unintended tragedy rather than an intentional killing.

Ron Paul, like his jackass scion currently serving as the junior Senator from Kentucky, has always had a serious problem with extending his vision of unlimited personal freedom to include a woman’s right to control her own reproductive system.

The current strain of “libertarianism” within the Republican party has always been little more than a facade employed during times when a Democratic President is in charge to distract the narrative-hungry members of the Washington media from the profligate spending and fascist foreign policies of the GOP when they are in power. The same transparently fraudulent argument is repeated because we as a country need for “two sides” to exists to every movement, and calling out one side of an argument as being demonstrably full of shit or evil is considered déclassé. The conservative minds of this country continue to believe (as they always have) that the only “people” who should be free from government control are corporate business interests and religious authority figures, and neither group thinks to fondly of a woman having unregulated control of their vagina.

Todd Akin, Ron Paul, and Paul Ryan have all been champions within the Congress for restricting abortion even in cases of rape and incest, an indefensible and maliciously cruel policy position for anyone to take, much less someone with the power to actually affect legislation. Akin and Ryan also worked during this congressional term to redefine rape (with reference to the limited allowable medicaid reimbursements for abortions) by qualifying the act with the term “forcible”. This means that other forms of non-consensual sex would not be eligible for federally-funded abortion services. The belief that “fake rape” is being frequently used as a excuse to exploit a loophole for a procedure that these men think should never be allowed is widespread amongst the Republican party, even amongst the stalwart defenders of “economic liberty”.

It is time to stop giving these men the benefit of the doubt concerning their records and their own words. The people who are promoting this line of thinking are hypocrites, misogynists, and sadists for wishing anyone to undergo a forced birth. Calling these men “libertarians” or defenders of “liberty” is beyond ironic, it is disgusting.

Forest Fires And Jackass Libertarianism

So let me get this straight…

A bunch of people living in the epicenter of one of the most ideologically “individualistic” conservative areas of the country are now experiencing epic fires that are threatening to destroy the entire goddamn region. These are the same people who whined about the evil environmentalists and their “scam” concerning the negative effects of global warming. Environmentalists who mentioned the possibility of increased ferocity of forest fires due to prolonged droughts in certain parts of the country were regarded as idiotic Cassandra’s or even communists.

These are people who now demand “government support” despite previously degrading the work of public workers, including fire fighters as being “parasites” to the national economy. This is also the exact same region of the country that proudly started cutting public services in such draconian ways to the point that streetlights were seen as “optional” and idiotic policies “pay per use” emergency services were either implemented or at least seriously discussed.

Furthermore these are the same people who looked at the role of the federal government in particular with an intense and unbridled hatred. Organizations like the National Park Service might have been extremely helpful in the effort to clear the massive amount of brush that fueled this fire, yet this essential task has been degraded mightily after decades of decreased public investment. And it’s not like conservatives really value federal entities whose sole job it is to address mass-scale emergencies. When the GOP was in charge FEMA was headed by a fired horse show executive. Since the GOP lost the presidency FEMA has been subjected to an endless stream of bullshit conspiracy stories or congressional obstructionism with their funding and leadership.

In the end maybe I’m just dismayed with the hypocrisy of this movement. Granted Ron Paul has stayed consistent with his batshit insane views of federal emergency management, with his greatest concern being the government’s apparent confiscation the guns belonging to the victims of emergencies (side note, given his lack of an ability to prove specific times when this has ever happened I’m guessing he’s full of gold-leafed shit). Maybe the conservatives need a reminder that their ideology is one that blames them for weighing the “moral hazard” of living in a fire zone and “choosing” to rationally take that risk. Remember, this sort of choice is “what freedom is all about”.