A little about Mario Depeine, Sr.

As an educator I get the opportunity to get a small glimpse of how our society is shaping up. Children come into the classroom with all types of perspectives. A lot of the perspectives are a result of their environment. Some of those perspectives reflect the home life or lack of. Some reflect the street life and some just reflect the media that the children are exposed to.

Middle School children are just starting out in life. You see how their characters and personalities are shaping up. Many can be molded or adjusted easily others are a lot more resistant to change depending on their circumstance.

I work in an urban district. While there I see many interesting and at times disheartening things. Hopefully my experiences as an educator can shed some light on what we can do to better prepare our children for the future.


Friday, January 21, 2011

Depeine MediaWorks: Health Care Reform Repeal? Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/flint/index.ssf/2011/01/fight_the_attempts_to_repeal_h.html

It is sad to see that Republicans are pushing to repeal the health care reforms that have been signed into law by the Obama administration. This has been such a need in America for many decades. So many people are suffering because of nonexistent health coverage. Many are dying prematurely and unnecessarily because healthcare has simply become a "luxury" that they cannot afford to have.

Many are working at or below minimum wage and they will never be able to afford to pay for individual or group coverage. Are we saying as a nation that the "poor" are not worth the basics of citizenship (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - US Declaration of Independence). Are they not to have life? Should they have a reduced life expectancy because they happen to be on the "wrong" side of the economic divide that exist in our great country? Should our elected officials be well taken care of while the average citizen scrambles to find "home remedies" just to stave off symptoms that eventually will lead to more serious health issues? I do not agree when the lives of American citizens are left to deteriorate and expire when our elected officials can do something to prevent that situation.

As far as I know, all the members of Congress (Congressman/woman and Senators) are very well insured. They are our elected officials and they are well compensated. These members of Congress, as far as I know, have received yearly raises. They have no concern about health coverage or financial stability while in office.

Why is it that these elected officials enjoy such a privilege to serve the people and have generous health coverage for themselves and their families, yet they don't want to extend that same privilege to the Americans that they serve? At the very least, they should be willing to forfeit their health coverage just to understand what it is to live without insurance. Perhaps they would have a little more empathy as they enthusiastically run to repeal a provision that is designed to help so many Americans and reduce exorbitant health costs associated with the uninsured.

We must expect more from our elected officials. I don't believe that elected officials should be so comfortable in their compensations (insurance, raises, etc.) that they "forget" what it is like to serve those who are less fortunate then they are. If you are quick to prevent others the opportunity to get health coverage, then you (Congress member) should be willing to forfeit the coverage that you so happily accept and take advantage of.

1 comment:

  1. My health ins raised from about $500 to over $700 a month. Problem in USA is everyone is fighting over there own stuff/domains. Ins. companies want to lock in profits. Politicians want to be re elected. MD's want to maintain income.

    I really think we need public option and also to really open up supply side of medical professionals and have some price protection guidelines where medical expenses are limited by law to a certain range say 2 or 3 times medicare allowance.

    It's not like you can shop around for a good price when you are having chest pains.

    Karl

    ReplyDelete

New Jersey Rally of May 22, 2010

New Jersey Rally of May 22, 2010
Young ones making their voices heard.