our national sickness

When the SCHIP veto override failed, I was sitting at my office desk, trying to work while L. sniffled and coughed in the chair beside me and tried to get enough amusement out of his mp3 player not to be bored to tears. He came to work with me because he was too sick to go to school; with one guy on vacation and two more out for their own medical issues, I did not have the option of staying home with him.

We have to cover L.’s health insurance as coverage for dependents isn’t available to either J. or me through work. It’s about $250 a month, which is fairly reasonable in an unreasonable market; but, with high deductibles for everything but routine appointments, there are things we put off. We haven’t done melanoma screening for all of L.’s many moles, even though melanoma runs in my family, because one biopsy can cost us $300. We haven’t had the benign, but growing, hemangioma on his lower lip removed for the same reason. So we triage our own coverage, but in reverse: the easy things that can be addressed within the scope of a normal doctor’s appointment get taken care of, while the more complex situations, with potential long-term negative health ramifications, get put off.

We make too much money for SCHIP, under even the more generous outlines of the failed bill. And that is as it should be, because we are the lucky ones. The ER is not our first and last resort for care.

But being lucky should not mean living in fear that your son may be subject to the same cancer that killed two relatives and has been diagnosed and excised in two more. Being lucky should not mean watching a potentially disfiguring growth on your son’s face, wondering at what point you will have to budget for surgery to remove it before it’s so large as to leave behind an equally disfiguring scar.

We need universal health care, now. If not for adults, then for our kids, goddamn it.

And now, a big fuck you to all those who voted to sustain the Compassionate Codpiece’s SCHIP veto:

Fuck you, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL). Fuck you, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO)…. Fuck you, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA). Fuck you, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Fuck you, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL). Fuck you, Rep. Richard Baker, (R-LA). Fuck you, Rep. J.G. Barrett (R-SC). Fuck you, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD). Fuck you, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL). Fuck you, Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL). Fuck you, Rob Bishop (R-UT). Fuck you, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). Fuck you, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO). Fuck you, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). Fuck you, Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL). Fuck you, Rep. John Boozman, (R-AR). Fuck you, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA). Fuck you, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA). Fuck you, Rep. Henry Brown (R-SC). Fuck you, Rep. Virginia Brown-Waite (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN). Fuck you, Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN). Fuck you, Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI). Fuck you, Rep. John Campbell (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT). Fuck you, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA). Fuck you, Rep. John Carter (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH). Fuck you, Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC). Fuck you, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK). Fuck you, Rep. Michael Conaway (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY). Fuck you, Rep. John Culberson (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. David Davis (R-TN). Fuck you, Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY). Fuck you, Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA). Fuck you, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA). Fuck you, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. John Duncan (R-TN). Fuck you, Rep. Terry Everett (R-AL). Fuck you, Rep. Mary Fallin (R-OK). Fuck you, Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ). Fuck you, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA). Fuck you, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE). Fuck you, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). Fuck you, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ). Fuck you, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ). Fuck you, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ). Fuck you, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA). Fuck you, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA). Fuck you, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). Fuck you, Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO). Fuck you, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL). Fuck you, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA). Fuck you, Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC). Fuck you, Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV). Fuck you, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI). Fuck you, Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-MO). Fuck you, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC). Fuck you, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL). Fuck you, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC). Fuck you, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). Fuck you, Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. Steve King (R-IA). Fuck you, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA). Fuck you, Rep. John Kline (R-MN). Fuck you, Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI). Fuck you, Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-NY). Fuck you, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO). Fuck you, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Ron Lewis (R-KY). Fuck you, Rep. John Linder (R-GA). Fuck you, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK). Fuck you, Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL).* Fuck you, Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-IL). Fuck you, Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA). Fuck you, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI_. Fuck you, Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA). Fuck you, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). Fuck you, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. John Mica (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO). Fuck you, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC). Fuck you, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM). Fuck you, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN). Fuck you, Rep. John Peterson (R-PA). Fuck you, Rep. Charles Pickering (R-MS). Fuck you, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA). Fuck you, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA). Fuck you, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY). Fuck you, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL). Fuck you, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY). Fuck you, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI). Fuck you, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Pete Roskam (R-IL). Fuck you, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).* Fuck you, Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA). Fuck you, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Fuck you, Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID). Fuck you, Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ). Fuck you, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH). Fuck you, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ). Fuck you, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL). Fuck you, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA). Fuck you, Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE). Fuck you, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN). Fuck you, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK). Fuck you, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO). Fuck you, Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MI). Fuck you, Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE). Fuck you, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX). Fuck you, Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS). Fuck you, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI). Fuck you, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR). Fuck you, Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN). Fuck you, Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL). Fuck you, Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL). Fuck you, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA). Fuck you, Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY). Fuck you, Rep. Roger Wicker (R-MS). And fuck you, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC).

*I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting to say that.