Why I Find the Facile Twaddle…

…about how “health care is not a right” to be a particularly barbarous manifestation of libertarianism run amok is illustrated by this brave, desperate, heartbreaking letter from a poor Catholic woman of my acquaintance:

I have been having symptoms for quite a while but they seem to be escalating. I finally, after much angst, saw the doctor yesterday. Actually I had to in order to get my thyroid prescriptions refilled, but anyway, the dr. said that all my problems are cardio related and I need a full cardio work-up as well as a referral to a cardiologist. My son supports me – paid almost 1,000 on medical for me in the past two months. He’s tapped out and I have no health insurance. The Navy will cover me if I’m admitted to the ER of the Naval Hospital and that’s it. My dr. knows my financial situation and told me that I need to keep my cell phone wih me at all times and if certain symptoms combine, I’m to call 911 immediately – another medical service that is pretty expensive. So, the long and short of it is I’m pretty much a walking time bomb. I can’t afford to pursue the heart stuff; my regular GP said that once you get into cardio, it could run into the thousands.

My question for you is the debate on ordinary and extraordinary means in preserving life. If you read Fr. Hardon, he says that what might be considered ordinary means in one culture could be extraordinary in another. Well now, don’t you think that could apply across the financial strata as well? In other words, if I don’t do anything else and die, have I committed a mortal sin? The money is not there so what is expected of me from the church? And would that be the same expectations of Christ?

I have five kids – all over 21 now, but all just starting to set out on their own paths in life. I feel panicky about leaving them. All the what ifs, did I do enough for them; have I said everything I can say to them; will it be enough to bring them into the light of Christ, or sustain them through the rest of their lives? Have I let them down as a mother or as a role model?

It is barbarous to live under a system where a woman is driven to ask questions like these. It is the organizers and profiteers of such a barbarous system, if anyone, who should be lying awake at night fearing for their immortal souls, not some poor desperate woman who is guilty of nothing but being too poor to be this sick.

We’re gonna try to put her in touch with whatever resources there are for her here in the local area. If some of you (especially some of you with medical savvy) know some way to get her help that won’t destroy her financially, please feel free to contact me and I will put you in touch with her.