Human Viability
The car swerved too late and the dog was struck a severe blow. It lay by the street whimpering in agonized pain until a passer by stopped to help. From his collar tag his owner was identified and contacted, and they rushed to the animal hospital to be there for the family pet.
The veterinarian explained that the dog had severe internal injuries and a series of broken bones. The doctor then explained that the cost for trying to regain the dog its health would be in the thousands of dollars. Ten minutes later the dog succumbed from a lethal injection of tranquilizers.
In corporate perspective, I am not viable. The fact that I have an incurable cancer which will result in death disqualifies me consideration for many, many things. Among them was the HMO I recently contacted to ask about their programs for Medicare Part C. Medicare Part C is a combination of Medicare dollars being put with patient contribution to create a total health care package. Things were going along just fine until I explained that I’m a Multiple Myeloma victim. At that point, the conversational temperature on the phone dropped tens of degrees instantly. “I’m sorry,” she said, not sounding apologetic at all, “but we can’t accept you. You’re not viable.”
The bottom line was that the HMO would have to put out resources for my health care but I would not live long enough for my Medicare and personal contribution to give the HMO the profit it preferred from its members. In other words, why do anything for me at all when I’m not going to live very long anyway. Not living long is an insurer’s nightmare because the profits they are making from Day One stop too quickly. I’m no different from the hapless dog I spoke of above, whose master simply didn’t have the money to help his pooch. The dog was relieved of its misery and the man was relieved to keep having enough money to live on.
Corporations are not budget minded people trying to get along in the world. They are constructed entities that have no feelings, no needs or goals, save to create money where it wasn’t before. Humanity and suffering are not a part of their equation. That’s why the United States has such awful health care for its citizens; even the government and the people who elect it don’t care enough to make damn sure that those elected to office do what’s needed.
I’m getting used to being non-viable. It has barred me from life insurance, piloting airplanes, buying a new car or home, and a laundry list of other so called privileges. I am punished because I served my country and got sick in the doing. My cancer originates in Vietnam and Agent Orange exposure. This has taught me that our nation rewards those who care for them by refusing to care for the people who defend and protect its ideals, sovereignty and goals.
It doesn’t matter a whit that I wake up feeling like the run-over dog, writhing in pain until medication dulls it some. And the option of being put to sleep exists in spirit but not practice. Those whose agonies are too much for them to bear must bear it anyway in the eyes of a selfish society. It’s true that a small few states permit physician assisted termination, but it is treated as a legitimized suicide, with suicide the key word. Any insurance that had been paid into stays in the insurance company coffers, and many of the rights earned through effort and contribution evaporate like low fog at the beginning of a hot day. Vehicles that would have been paid for due to borrower death –or any other loan becomes instantly callable. So in essence, euthenasia is merely a transfer of burden from patient to heir.
So the disabled among our population are curtailed and punished from as many directions as one can look to. It’s not bad enough that our ill people are sick and in pain, no, society must twist the proverbial knife and watch us squirm.
Because we aren’t viable.
