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Does anyone else think I'm bitter?

I blogged yesterday, on my other blog, about what I believe to be an irrational fear of "socialized medicine".

Without going into the particulars of my thoughts on the topic, (you can read it for yourself if you're interested), I did get a comment from one of my loyal readers, who blogs in support of the health insurance industry, suggesting I am bitter about my situation, and that is why I feel the way I do about the current state of US health care.

Have I ever suggested to anyone that I am bitter about my situation?

Certainly, I'm not happy with the fact I have mantle cell lymphoma, but neither am I bitter about it.

People get sick all the time, and there is no reason to believe I, or anyone else, should be entitled to some special dispensation not to get sick. Getting sick is part of life. Everyone will get sick sometime in their life, and we all have to deal with it as best we can.

In some regards I actually feel it was of benefit, and helped put a different perspective on life, which is one of the reasons I started this blog.
What I am bitter about is a health care system that treats health care like a commodity distributed according to the ability to pay, rather then according to need.

What I'm bitter about is a health care system that discriminates against the most vulnerable in society, by burdening them with undue costs and pressures, with no regard to the consequences to society, and then rationalizing that it was their fault for getting sick, and/or not planning well.

If that makes me appear bitter about my situation, or that I'm feeling sorry for myself, then so be it. I just don't see it that way.

I only wish others could see the world as I see it. I think it would be a better place.
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Comments

Becky said…
Being firm in ones belief does not make one bitter.

You just happen to have a greater understanding in an area that many don't have, yet. They don't have the luxury or misfotune (depending on how you look at it) of knowing what you do now, but you can put yourself in their shoes and remember how you thought about healthcare before you were diagnosed.

As a responsible citizen I would like to think that when it comes to healthcare my country would at least see to it that I am treated the same as an aging inmate in prison.
3:44 PM
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