Healthcare and its Unfair Cost: What Shall the Poor Do? How Shall they live?

Let’s talk about healthcare and its inhumane cost in this country.

I was talking to a friend of mine last week. He asked me how much do you pay for health insurance  at your job. I told him almost $ 700.00 a month, just for me, which does not include my wife and our four children. I told him to be exact I pay $ 334.89 semi-monthly, which covers medical ($313.50), dental ($10.75), vision ($ 3.38), life insurance ( $ 10.64).

On the other hand, at her job, my wife pays about $ 600.00 every two weeks; the coverage includes our four children, not me.

I said to him: dude, we pay $ 1600 a month for just health coverage, which estimates to $ 19, 200 a year. ( He was incredibly shocked) This almost $ 20, 000 my family pays annually for healthcare. How can anyone save any money?

Do you see why our  healthcare  system must change for  individuals and families in this country? The cost for American healthcare is not only immoral, it is devastating for the American poor and dangerously sinful. Life necessities like healthcare is probably worst for the American poor and underrepresented families in this country. How shall the working class and underclass live in this country. ( Do you understand the implication why the American poor and working class American patients with high-risked and life-threatening diseases such as (terminal) cancer, HIV AIDS die quickly because they can’t afford the ridiculous cost of the medical treatment.) Do you also see the implication of that and how unfair public policies could be detrimental to the well-being of  the American poor, the underclass, and those living in the margins of society?  Those in the capacity to serve the American public in the government and have the privilege to make laws and regulate public policies must think critically about the possible outcome and implications of their actions and bill execution;  particularly, they should be concerned about how their actions could help alleviate the suffering of the poor and the working class as well as contribute to the human flourishing in this society or contribute to a more difficult life for them.

As Paulo Freire has stated int the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (1968), “Love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause-like the cause of liberation. And this commitment, because it is loving, is dialogical. As an act of bravery, love cannot be sentimental; as an act of freedom, it must not serve as a pretext for manipulation. It must generate other acts of freedom; otherwise, it is not love. Only abolishing the situation of oppression it it possible to restore to the love which that situation made impossible. ” The most effective way a public servant and politician could show love in the public is to do justice to the American poor and working class. Be the voice of the voiceless and the fatherless, the widow, the marginalized, the oppressed, the hungry, the naked— even when  you are behind the closed doors making important decisions for this country.

No wonder even those of us with reasonably well-paid careers and professions in this country could easily die poor and live pay check by pay check. Unfair public policies are detrimental to the well-being of those living in the margins in this country; they contribute more suffering and a hard life for the American poor and the working class. We must have a heart for the poor and be moved by compassion when reaching out to them; solidarity with the poor and defending the rights of the least among us is nothing less than the good news announced to them. We can no longer ignore the suffering and pain of those who live a block down from us, even those who are not  members of our social and educated class.

*** Last year, I went to the  (for 3 wisdom teeth) done.( I don’t like gaps in the back of my mouth. Lol)  With my insurance, they asked me to pay $2600 in addition to what my dental plan will cover.

***Now, you know the reason why I am a  poor professor and poor pastor (razè in Haitian Creole; broke in American English), but I still manage to wear a bow tie to work every day  🙂

Guess what? I am not going to complain. I’m thankful that the great Lord has blessed me and my wife with a job and always provides for our needs despite the odds of this life.

Just wanted to share this thought with you.