All Is Optional

If we’ve chatted recently, I’m certain I’ve linked you to Nicholas Kristof’s blog/colum On the Ground. Thanks to my subscription to TimesSelect courtesy of the Honors College at Pace University, I regularly read Mr. Kristof. His May 21 column, “A Short American Life,” is a provoking read addressing issues of healthcare.

Because my mom is a healthcare provider in an extremely poor, underserviced area, I’ve heard a fair number of complaints. Though, now, it is more personal than the complaints of my mother or her patients. Upon graduation tomorrow, I will no longer be insured by my mother’s amazing healthcare coverage because of my age and the fact that I will no longer be a student. I expect to receive healthcare at whatever salaried, entry-level position I gain in the next few months. However, in the in-between times, where I’m at best a part-time employee, I will have no healthcare. I have fairly decent health and forsee no major complications but that doesn’t mean accidents don’t happen.

The American healthcare system is astoundingly dysfunctional. A reader comment by Brian Webster accurately sums up my opinion. Webster said,

Having been a recipient of the British and American Health Systems I must say the British is much better and fairer than the American. Come to that, so is the Cuban.

Health or education should never be under the care of business. These two are tremendously important to the country and to turn them over to business is absurd.