Rocket Science

It’s funny how thinking about the achievement of man’s walking on the moon 40 years ago puts almost everything else into a different perspective.

Such as why, for example, we still cannot ensure that every single person in this country has access to adequate health care.   

Granted this is in a larger category of experience, for instance, than your mom saying to you, “If we can put a man on the moon…why can’t you clean up your room?”  Or saying to your significant other, “If we can put a man on the moon…how come you mess up the checkbook every month?” 

On the other hand, health care matters a lot more than whether you’re a slob or are driven crazy by someone who can’t add and subtract. 

So, how is it, then, that in the 40 years since Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind,” the number of uninsured in this country has grown inexorably larger year after year? 

Defenders of the status quo will simply ignore the question and start ranting about how we have the best health care in the entire world and any move to seriously reform it is a step on the dreaded path to “socialized medicine.”

Now, I won’t argue that the quality of health care in this country is good, even very good.  The problem is that that’s not true for everyone and it is definitely not true for anyone who does not have coverage.

One question that never seems to get asked is whether we, as a people, would rather have the most superlative health care for some of the population or good basic coverage for the entire population. 

I recently had the occasion to call a specialist for an appointment.  I’d done my homework, which essentially meant finding out the answer to the all-important question: was the doctor in my network?