9/11 Every Month

Posted on 09/18/2009 at 9:18 am by Bob Cesca

A Harvard study concludes:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year — one every 12 minutes — in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care…

This is significantly more than previous numbers I’ve been quoting. 3,750 every month. More than were killed on 9/11 — every month. Where’s the tearful singing on the steps of the Capitol? Where’s the swift action from Congress? Where’s the public outrage and the melodramatic celebrity television specials?

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  • roxsteady

    All excellent questions Bob!

  • Eric

    I imagine you could write a college textbook about the socio/psychological underpinnings regarding this disconnect.The obvious (and simplistic) answer is that on 9/11 we were attacked by foreigners who made us look like fools. Though the element of revenge was downplayed, and we heard ‘sermons’ about why subsequent military response shouldn’t be about revenge, I think that emotion lay in the pit of our collective stomach for quite a while.As far as health care? Sometimes I wonder if the opponents see some kind of societal justice at play: “You can’t afford it? Then obviously there is something wrong the you. You’ve done something bad. Why should I be responsible for that?”We used to have this attitude toward mental illness. “That ‘crazy’ person must be immoral in some way; I can’t put my finger on it, but…”We were more than ready to throw all of our resources into striking back at Al Queda. We can’tdo that here; it would mean turning that dynamic back on ourselves. It would mean embracing the realization that the society we have, the one that gave rise to our current health care system, is in some ways more dangerous than that foreign enemy.

  • stacib

    Eric: I was actually at a healthcare town hall and a cardiologist wife stood up to say that the only people without healthcare were either drug addicts or mentally ill. She said it with such conviction, you had to accept that she actually believed what she said. That scares me that somebody that is supposedly educated could parrot such an incredibly stupid statement. If she (and her husband — he was there saying similar crap), what hope do we have with the people who really are uneducated?

  • J

    @stacib: Um, don’t drug addicts and the mentally ill REALLY REALLY need health insurance? Isn’t she highlighting a major part of the problem–that those most in need of insurance are often the ones who don’t have it????

  • stacib

    True, J, but to say flat out that all uninsured people are either druggies or slackers — uh, I don’t think so. I will be laid off effective 11/20 and will not be able to afford the COBRA payments, hence I’ll be without insurance. I’m neither drugged nor crazy, so where do I fit in?

  • http://peggystone263@msn.com peggygeorge

    What should happen at a town hall – where someone like the doctor’s wife makes such an easily disproven statement – is that the moderator would ask everyone present who doesn’t have health insurance to quietly stand (yes, I know it won’t happen) and then select a few to state calmly why they are without insurance. Of course, that would require sane and civil discourse….