Now this CRAP is making its round on facebook as a letter to the President!! lol This guy needs an editor as bad as I do…. but I am not sending my letters to the President with misspelled words and BAD grammar at least. If you like Dr. Roger Starner Jones point…. I ask that you read my point and reconsider! Dr. Jones’ own arrogant culture of SUPERIORITY because he thinks being a doctor exempts himself from the human condition and makes his opinion more relevant is humorous and validates that sharing my opinion via my blog is IMPORTANT!! lol
Originally posted on my blog March 20, 2010 – Photo added September 14, 2010 just in case claiming this to be for the President this time instead of the Clarion Ledger (as last time) will make it more relevant!! lol
This e-mail was in my inbox :
Subjet: A GREAT LETTER TO THE CLARION LEDGER EDITOR
This was written to the Clarion Ledger by one of our General Surgery residents at UMC. I don’t think he could’ve illustrated this more perfectly!! And, I 100% agree with him!!!! PAUL
Dear Sirs:
During my last night’s shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate tattoos, a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B tune for a ringtone. Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid. She smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer. And our Congress expects me to pay for this woman’s health care? Our nation’s health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture —20a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture that thinks “I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me”. Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow. Don’t you agree?
STARNER JONES,MD
Jackson, MS
NO I DO NOT AGREE!!
I have more faith in the person that sent this to me than is indicated by that person perpetuating this kind of poor argument to a bigger problem than gold teeth and R&B ringtones on new cellphones of tattooed girls on Medicaid. The doctor shows little compassion considering he is a resident at a medical center and not a law clerk for a judge. I prefer my doctors to treat medical conditions and leave the judging to Judges. I feel Dr. Jones actually represents a crisis in our culture as well as the patient he discusses! But he is educated and should know better. I dare say he had many more opportunities in life than the girl he so easily judges!
Thanks – Hope you ENJOY!!
My response for Dr. Jones and others that agree with him:
ALTRUISM & PORK
What has happened to America’s ALTRUISM? 46,000,000 people in the U.S. have no insurance and the other 250,000,000 are scared shitless !! They are scared because they have sit on their butts and done NOTHING to help the uninsured for so long, that now it could possibly affect them, they wake up. But the sad thing is they do not wake up out of concern of the uninsured, they are only worried about themselves and how it affects them! Shame on us! I support REFORM, but not what Congress is trying to pass off as reform. It is just more bureaucracy and pork.
Altruism is defined by Merriam-Webster as: “unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others[1]”. Okay Merriam-Webster did not bold and underline unselfish I did, but the definition is exact. In the U.S. we now have over 46,000,000[2] uninsured. It sounds to me like many Americans hold to the notion “In God We Trust” because there is no one in Washington D.C. to trust. They also have to trust God to keep them healthy, because only heaven can help them if they get sick in the U.S. with no insurance or little funds in savings for illnesses. Even as healthcare reform is discussed in the nation’s capitol, politicians are taking the opportunity to attach their earmarks and pork as usual. No wonder the U.S. is the most obese nation in the world[3], it cannot even pass healthcare reform without a big serving of pork. As Americans we have gotten so selfish, that providing healthcare for the less fortunate is a hot button issue. We cannot even share healthcare without complaints.
I find it is people with insurance that are so upset, but I hear little from the ones that would benefit most from healthcare reform. Why have the insured people decided to be so loud now? Because they have not had to worry about a sick child or spouse getting healthcare if they need it, but now they are thinking about it. Now their healthcare is only in discussion of possibly changing they start screaming. Why hasn’t anyone screamed out about the injustice of denying healthcare coverage for the less fortunate? Welcome to the nightmare all the uninsured are living! These uninsured are worried about their family’s healthcare too. It is not until their own coverage is challenged that Americans cry foul. I chose the term “less fortunate” because another objection I hear often is they do not want their tax money going to help those that sit back and wait for the government to help them. The disappointing news there is, “those people” are already getting that tax money in the form of welfare, food stamps and health coverage via Medicaid. Or better yet, they do not pay their hospital bills and that cost is passed on to the actual paying patients. Yes, there are some that are abusing the system, but are we okay with punishing the innocent to make this point as we use the extreme as if it is the norm? The majority of uninsured today are made up of the working poor. Nearly 1.3 million full-time workers lost their health insurance in 2006[4]. Over 8 in 10 uninsured people come from working families – almost 70 percent from families with one worker[5]. So the idea that the people to benefit from reform are free loaders waiting for a free ride is ABSURD!
I remember from Sunday School and my church training that Christ instructed us to care for all people, but especially the poor and those suffering from social injustice. That is why there are well over 100 passages in the Bible addressing this subject[6]. So I would think that Christians would be leading the pack for reform, but that does not seem to be the case. Over $83 million was spent by both sides of Prop 8 ballot initiative trying to prevent the right for gays to marry. I think it would be safe to say the majority of the donors giving $39.9 million supporting Prop 8 (which bans gay marriage) were doing so based on their own personal and religious beliefs. It is America and they have the right to do that, but even if they do not feel gays being denied the right to marry is a social injustice, how can anyone say that making healthcare more accessible and affordable is not a social injustice? “Healthcare access is a right, not a privilege”[7] is what all Americans should be screaming, especially Christian organizations. I guess the almost $40 million spent keeping California’s gays from getting married is much more important than providing healthcare for the less fortunate!
I would say it is true that no one is denied healthcare in an emergency, but at what cost. One trip to the emergency room for kidney stones totaled over $3,200 and I was never admitted to the hospital and only treated in the emergency room. Luckily I had insurance at the time and only had to pay $640.00 out of my pocket. When I had the same problem in Colombia, South America; I had the same treatment and the total cost (with no insurance) was $275.00. If prices were more affordable for healthcare, insuring Americans would not be a problem. Preventative treatment and early diagnosis of health issues could also save Americans a lot of money. But with the big money made by pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations and insurance companies, I do not see any real reform coming. The lobbyists representing those groups are so deep in the politicians pockets that what is best for Americans is surpassed for the lobbyist with the most money. Surprise, once again the topic of corruption in politics needs to be mentioned. Since a lot of our congressmen and senators were lawyers before politicians, we will never see tort reform; so the lawyers can continue to sue, sue, sue and get rich, rich, rich and healthcare cost rise, rise, and rise!
Doctors are paid well and nurses should make so much more for what they do. This is not where the cost of healthcare lies, it is in their bosses, insurances companies, lobbyist and politician’s pockets from our “for profit” healthcare system where money is more important than patients. I even see e-mails of doctors noticing gold teeth, cellphones and ringtones; begrudging treating those patients because they may have some kind of government assistance. I would LOVE to see more e-mails of doctors volunteering to treat the poor that have no insurance more so than reporting who they judge while giving medical assistance. If the doctors saw fit to do more volunteering, the government would not need to be as involved as much. It would also be good to see the wealthy doing more to help people that are not as fortunate as they are. Many Americans prefer to drive huge gas hog 4×4 trucks that never go off-road and Hummers in bright-ass colors to show off how much credit have instead of spending any time helping the ones less fortunate. No matter my station in life, I know there were and are people I could have done more for unselfishly! Can you think of even a friend that could use help from you?
Next time healthcare is a topic among friends, ask for a slice of bacon; because by the end of healthcare reform all Americans will have is PORK! The insurance, pharmaceutical and health organization companies will be even richer, our taxes will be higher and there will be no benefit seen for the poor, under insured and uninsurable! People should be paid for treating the sick, but not profit from it. But the best thing about America’s healthcare system – it will STILL be the only country in the world that allows people PROFIT form treating the sick! But keep in mind, it is still possible to demonstrate that as individuals we can be even more greedy as well!
Please notice and check my facts, I am not making up false information like some of the media is doing to scare people.
[1] “altruism.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 25 August 2009.
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/altruism>
[2] “Facts on the Cost of Health Insurance Coverage.” The National Coalition on Health Care. August 25, 2009. http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml
[3] “Health Statistics > Obesity (most recent) by country”. NationMaster.com. August 25, 2009 http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity
[4] DeNavas-Walt, C.B. Proctor, and J. Smith. “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007”. U.S. Census Bureau., August 2008.
[5] The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Employee Health Benefits: 2008 Annual Survey. September 2008. http://www.kff.org/insurance/7672/index.cfm
[6] “Bible verses: Caring for the poor, Christian service: serving others.” Southern Nazarene University. August 25, 2009. http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/poor.htm
[7] Thomas J Papadimos. “Healthcare access as a right, not a privilege: a construct of Western thought.” Philosophy, Ethics, Humanities in Medicine. March 8, 2007. August 25, 2009. http://www.peh-med.com/content/2/1/2
contribute to a Presidential campaign. I was also the first time I was really actively involved in any campaign. The Obama campaign had sent me a few bumper stickers as a thanks for donating and I was so excited that whenever I do get home… I was going to be able to post my Obama stickers on my little OLD truck. But my conservative mother threw them away! No thought given to the idea I may WANT them. No consideration, just trash. Some I had actually purchased. 
make – my lifestyle or my health. My health won-out! I gave up living in a nice house with one of my most favorite people in the world as a roommate, driving a BMW convertible and living in the exciting city of Las Vegas for living at home with my parents, with no car, in a small town in Mississippi. Like I said… NOT an easy decision, but a necessary decision. I knew the sacrifices I was going to have to make and I was lucky to have a loving and supportive family to help me. 
Fox News said, even though I was one of the very people Obama was trying to help with Obamacare – they saw it as evil and bad and so was Obama. This is when a passion for what was going on in politics began to grow IN me. My frustration also grew because I could not get them to see and understand – I AM ONE OF “THOSE PEOPLE” Fox News is demeaning! My parents had Social Security & Medicare and others in my family even had Medicaid and they witnessed my struggle with health issues all-the-while I had no health insurance. I began to see “conservative” to equal – I got mine and I do not care about you.
an outsider in my own family. Church was so important and BEING Christian was even more important. But as the conservatives boasted of their Christianity, I witnessed a great deal of not so Christian actions. Being gay has helped me see “church”, Christians, and even God in a much different light. I saw the principles of the Democrats relate more to Christianity than the “religious right”. I wrote a blog specifically to try to engage people to explain how “conservatives” were Christian (http://wp.me/pKLa8-GU) and e-mailed a blog that asked the same but in a friendlier tone than I had be able to muster! (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithforward/2012/11/time-for-christians-to-make-a-choice/) Republicans extol their Christianity but for me it conflicts with their politics and I feel the Democrats live it by their politics.
the uninsured get access to care! This creates for me my biggest struggle – it makes me see my dearly devoted, Christian mother and others in my family as hypocrites! They already dislike me for being so different in how I think… how could they deal with being viewed as hypocrites? Or possibly even racist because of things they say about Obama? Oh yeah, that is why it was such an internal struggle for me to live that close to them. I hate myself for seeing my family the way I do. We DO love each other… but there is no respect unless there is agreement and I just can’t agree with them. They refuse to listen to my points because I think they do not want to see the hypocrisy. But any attempts I make to talk and try to understand only ends badly! I am a critical-thinker and NEED more than rhetoric and “faith” to understand things! Now I live far away and even at a distance it still hurts me!
months later he had a stroke, then 9 days later died. At his funeral, all that spoke (including me) mentioned his trademark little, old, piece of crap Toyota trucks he had over the years. I did eventually get a little money and had the opportunity to travel to see my friend I call Little Buddy (one of my FAVORITE people in the world) and when I returned from that trip – I bought a little, old, piece of crap Toyota truck like my Dad used to have. I was looking forward to putting my Obama stickers on MY little, old truck, but they were thrown away because no one considered them relevant at that house – the same as me… discarded without consideration or concern!
Thomas Johnston 