Lisa D. T. Rice acknowledges her privilege within the healthcare system and points out it should be that way for everyone.
Lisa D. T. Rice’s healthcare story
I met Lisa D. T. Rice at a Bridge Alliance Conference. She had several stories to tell in our group discussions. The one on healthcare touched me, so I asked her to tell her story.
Lisa was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. She had multiple surgeries to get rid of her cancer and add organs that could have further caused her cancer to spread.
Lisa’s outcome from her cancer diagnosis was successful. Why? Because she is one of the fortunate few with great insurance. She was able to pick her team of doctors after consulting many. She assured herself that she would get optimum care.
Ms. Rice realizes that she has a privilege too few Americans have. More importantly, she wants all Americans to have the same options she had for her excellent healthcare.
Here is the thing. Those who want to continue the obscene profits from healthcare use good people like Ms. Rice as pawns. They convince people like her that giving everyone good healthcare would be at her expense. They want her to believe that she would suffer diminished care.
That is false. A Medicare-For-All system would afford everyone great care especially given the amount we invest in healthcare with poor returns under our current medical system. The only people who would get less are the healthcare thugs who profit by denying healthcare to most.
I was pleasantly surprised that Ms. Rice never once took the selfish view that too many take on this subject. Our job is to educate everyone that if we get rid of the middleperson in healthcare, the insurance companies; if we recover our investment in the drugs we paid for that pharmaceutical corporations then sell at inflated prices; if we regulate hospitals to prevent the $10-aspirin-syndrome, there is enough money in the system to give everyone the services that were afforded to Ms. Rice.
Once we convince people like Ms. Rice that they benefit when we all benefit, we will get real reform. And then it will be goodbye to the thugs-in-ties & suits (TITS)