Lesson from Michael Jackson:
“I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror. I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways. And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer. If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place, Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change”
- Lyrics from“Man in the Mirror”
At this particular and unique moment, with the public option now hanging in balance, our international image severely damaged from a recent history of such government sponsored activities as torture and extraordinary rendition, and the recent loss of both one of our nation’s greatest idealists (Kennedy) and entertainers (Jackson), it would not be imprudent for us to follow MJ’s example and take a collective look in the mirror. Will we like what we see? Will we like the man in the mirror? If the answer isn’t yes to both those questions, what is the change we need to make?
This brings us to the lesson from Ted Kennedy:
In an article he penned for Newsweek just weeks before his death, Senator Ted Kennedy described the outcome of our current health care debate as one which will critically define the character of our nation moving forward. After all, aren’t we only as strong as the weakest among us? Not only is our current health care system immoral – if you are uninsured and get diagnosed with cancer, for example, you are 50% less likely to survive than someone with insurance – it is an international embarrassment. Yes, it works really well for the ever shrinking number of people who can afford it, but it is extremely inefficient and everyone else in the world looks at it with bewilderment. A French woman named Madeline who was recently quoted on BloggingStocks, remarks: “What’s wrong with you Americans? Your health care system is backward, inefficient, irrational!”
She has a point. NPR recently compiled a huge amount of international health care spending data and concluded that, “While residents in Europe and Japan may pay higher insurance premiums or taxes than Americans, in the end, when all costs are added up, Americans spend more money on health care per person with fewer people covered (Data most recent available as of July 2008).” In France, where Madeline receives her own “socialist” health care, life expectancy at birth is 80.3 years, 100% of citizens and legal residents are covered, and health care costs per person per year are $3, 374. Here in the U.S., life expectancy at birth is 78.1 years, only 82% of people under 65 are covered (even less now), and we spend a whopping $6,402 per person per year.
Similarly, in a recent piece for The Guardian (UK), Michele Hanson writes: “How dare the Republicans bad-mouth our free healthcare system? If I’d been born in the US, I’d probably be dead by now…..The NHS is one of my main reasons for thanking heaven I was born here, where I know that whatever my income, our free health system will look after me.”
Now, finally, the lesson from the Brits:
The British perhaps faced a similar moment of national definition in the wake of WWII. With many of their cities destroyed, brave soldiers lost, and citizens impoverished, they were eager to come together and build a better society moving forward. Quoting a line from a British Member of Parliament in the movie Sicko, the British did some self- reflection and concluded that “If we can pay to kill people, we can pay to help people.” Remember the hundreds of billions of dollars we just spent on the war in Iraq? We live in a country where, in 2007, then President Bush sent a request for an additional $90 billion to continue the war in Iraq, but the same year vetoed a bill that would help provide health coverage to children.
The British pulled together for something other than war and created the National Health Service where everyone is covered and care is free at the point of use. Now, after many years of hard work and improvement, they not only have one of the best health care systems in the world (79 year life expectancy at birth, $2,723 health care spending per person per year), but they can look at the man in the mirror and actually like what they see.
Cheers.
Matt Horowitz
Matt,
This is very insightful writing and I am thoroughly impressed. I can’t believe I used to babysit you all those years ago! Liked how you tied in Kennedy and Michael JacksonStill can’t believe Bush got away with vetoing SCHIP back in ‘07; ridiculous.
Keep up the great writing – I’ll repost this on my facebook for sure.
After a long delay: THANK YOU for taking the time to read and respond! Time goes by quickly, doesn’t it? Thankfully the democratic majorities expanded health care coverage for children this year. Hopefully we can continue to elevate the values and morals of America into our policies….practice what we preach.
Your examples are spot on. But I say, take this a bit further—
1. The Brits: Didn’t Parliament come before Congress? Didn’t the Magna Carta come before the Constitution? Feasible goals for the future are easier to construct and defend after studying historical examples of successes and failures. If there’s concrete evidence of success, it’s less intimidating to pursue change. As you brought up, there’s concrete evidence just across the Atlantic that a nationally run health care system can be effective. Why is there still fear? I say we take every complaint and every concern and address it. We shouldn’t be simply dismissing the anxiety and agitation of America, we should take the worried by the hand and calm their fears through education.
2. Kennedy: He was a great role model, “The Lion of the Senate”. Perhaps we all should have been little lions all along, influencing and educating those around us for the sake of greater and collective understanding. Bush’s War was embarrassing, but clearly demonstrates that even with the best intentions, ineffective and useless policy hurts Americans. Instead of supporting greed, leaders, legislation, and activists need to set an example of humility and community to the nation. Despite my love of competition, economic and athletic, it has to be said that greed for the sake of monetary profit alone is not good. Progress in the sciences and arts is good, progress in America towards peaceful interdependence and higher efficiency is good, but no respectable progress comes through malicious manipulation. Once again, we must educate America.
3. MJ: Sometimes referencing lyrics in support of policy can end up sounding cheesy. This is not the case here. The Man in The Mirror is the perfect mantra for those who see a need for change in the world. Activism and actions in support of legislative change needs to start with personal actions on the everyday level. True activism has to take the issues of today (health care, education, disparity of wealth) and make them an issue in every day life, in conversations, in movies, in newspapers, in television shows. This is not a call for a brainwashing propaganda campaign. No manipulation is good manipulation. But I’ll say this a third time, education is the only tool we have against fear, the arch-nemesis of change, and true education presents facts in an organized manner that allows the students to draw conclusions themselves. We must make the truth apparent. We must show how change can benefit America and how destructive current practices truly are. But unlike my repetitious insistence that education is the answer, the truth must be presented in an effective, accessible, and fresh manner that does not create new fears. Force-feeding policy down America’s throat will never work. We must acquaint all Americans with a well presented smorgasbord of facts, steadily working towards understanding, and be patient for America to once again call for change herself.
Gwen,
You take the prize for the most thoughtful response ever posted on Song of Sibyl to date. Unfortunately the worry and uncertainty that the prospect of actual change induces in many is the very cause of the social inertia that we are battling against. We both brought up how a national health care system actually works pretty well in the U.K. but it even works better in France. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently ranked France’s health care system the top system in the world. That’s pretty remarkable considering everyone is covered.
That’s largely what this blog is about though, starting a conversation here that our readers can take to the outside world and not only educate those who don’t know the details behind these issues (and the drama is always in the details), but effectuate real, bold change.
You also hit it right on the head with your comments about greed. Greed is precisely why our health care system isn’t working for so many people who need it the most. Rather than pocketing $750 million dollars, health care CEOs should actually cover those that they insure. Denying life-saving treatments that cost less than insurance CEO’s make in an hour to those that actually have insurance has been one of the most catastrophic failures seen in our for-profit insurance system.
[...] about morals and the character of the society in which we live. Look no further than my column “Defining the Character of our Nation: Lessons from Michael Jackson, Ted Kennedy, and the Brits”…for evidence on that point. Unfortunately, this seems to appeal only to the uninsured and a few [...]