What do Junior High and Health Care Reform Have in Common?

Right now Republicans are shouting REPEAL, REPEAL (revenge, revenge). Democrats are saying...Oh Yeah? Bring it! Someone's cutting gas lines. Our representatives have police protection. A University Professor with Parkinson's is verbally berated by men in white shirts and ties "here...I'll pay for you!"...throwing dollar bills at him.

Anyone else feel like we are back in junior high? A nation of freedom and open debate. A country founded on those inalienable rights; whatever!

In the meantime, maternal mortality in the U.S. is higher than in some (of what we call) 'third world' countries. 1 in 6 U.S. women will experience some form of sexual violence in her lifetime; under 25 and you are at the greatest risk.

Oh, and here's a little story... A bright, intelligent woman in her early fifties complains repeatedly of a series of symptoms. She tells her doctor I think I am menopausal and I'd like to discuss bio-identical hormone replacement. The doctor says, your lab work says you are not menopausal. She says it's been two years since I had a period. The doctor says the lab work says you are not menopausal. This goes on for over a year. Finally, the doctor says here's the name of a therapist...make an appointment. The woman makes the appointment. The therapist suggests the woman might want to get a second opinion. The woman does.

Two years after experiencing life-impairing symptoms the second opinion says let's try you on some bio-identicals. The symptoms all but disappear. Two years. That's a long time to struggle; needlessly. But, it's only hormones...right? The struggle nearly cost this woman her job.

Maybe all this junior high locker room health care reform craziness would be better channeled into authentic changes in health care. If a woman's body was sacred there would be no 1 in 6 statistic on sexual violence (which is likely an underestimate). A woman paying attention to the signs of her own body would be respected. Pregnant women would not die because because they were engaging their reproductive function. The authors of Half the Sky comment that if men started dying as a result of engaging in their reproductive function, medicine would be falling all over itself finding a solution! Think about it, a man engages in sex. His partner becomes pregnant. He keels over dead. Damn skippy we'd be looking for a solution!

I am sure that we need to do something with the health care system. I am the last person to even suggest what the Washington D.C. solution should look like. However, those of us down here in the trenches can be making our own changes in health care by adding just a wee bit of respect into the mix.

change the lives of women, change the world.
T.