While wealthy legislators in Washington haggle over how to protect the profits of private insurance providers, men and women trying to live in the United States on less than $30,000 a year are standing in line for two and a half hours to get flu shots for themselves and their children.
And they stand in line gladly because at the end of the wait their children are protected from the flu.
If not for free flu clinics, millions of Americans could not pay to immunize their children at $25 a pop.
We don’t need an all-purpose, all or nothing bill thousands of pages long dedicated to safe-guarding the financial interests of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
We need a few practical measures dealing with health and how people who earn less than a senator can stay well.
Something as simple as free flu shots can be a life saver for low income families.
Compared to the senators and congressmen, at least three-quarters of the population is low income.
Congressmen and senators are paid $174,000 a year. Someone working for the minimum wage is lucky to earn $14,000 a year. As a teacher, I was earning $35,000 after 25 years of teaching.
Even without all the extras they manage to pile onto that princely sum, congressmen and senators live higher on the hog than millions of the rest of us.
I cannot understand what prompts all the bile being spewed by politicians and others over efforts to bring about a change in the way health care is administered in this country.
I’m just now becoming aware of venomous media personalities who dedicate themselves to expounding a selfish, mean-spirited view of human existence.
Come on, people! Turn off the talk shows and look around the community you live in. Let real people shape your views, not anti-social bullies like Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Cunningham and Glen Beck.
When it comes down to it, those flickering noisy shadows don’t even exist. But your neighbors do.