Erica Jong Weighs In on Health Care

Erica Jong has always enjoyed a gift for words and self-expression. Her Huff Po opinion piece: Don’t Let the Yellers Win, on the healthcare debate has nothing to do with sexual fantasies, but is focused instead on not letting the “crazy people win this one”.

Embroiled in an online debate this morning on my own “cultural imperialism”, Erica Jong’s words couldn’t come at a better time. Let me stay focused in RedTracker, which is also my goal in the discussion of how American women can contribute most effectively in the international women’s rights arena.

We live in a world, where the one who screams the loudest, uses the biggest intellectual words, is typically the most insulting, and makes grandiose, blanket statements — like death squads in health care — wins the argument.

I blame the Obama Administration that any person of any party is still allowed to say that America’s healthcare system is the best in the world. President Obama’s failure to brand American brains with the facts of just how low we are on the international healthcare totem poll is a failure of leadership and effective communication, in my playbook.

Bottom line, the yellers win, if we let them. Erica Jong calls them the “crazies”. That’s perhaps a bit insulting, but her point is well taken.

The facts of the sorry state of American health care are undisputed by professionals on either side of the debate. We pay more than any other country in the world, but our healthcare statistics wellness and disease-cure stats are far down on the list.

The rest of the world considers our healthcare to be substandard. Cuba rates higher. It is true that America invests in keeping a single life alive, moreso than any country in the world. If you have advanced cancer with 1% chance of a cure, you want to be treated here in the US.

Day in and day out health and wellness status for the health care most of us need — America is in the middle, behind most industrialized countries.  How in the heck do these facts not come out in these yelling and screaming sessions around the country?

I believe the NYTimes sent a similar message to President Obama on healthcare, and I’ll reinforce Erica Jong’s: So come on Dems, get with the program. We need a public option—or we’re gonna have to start a new political party with guts. We could call it the Healthy Party. Or we could move to Canada—or Ireland or Italy or France. We could move almost anywhere and get health care without breaking the bank. What’s wrong with the US? The crazy people make the decisions—on health, on guns, on wildlife, on the environment. What stupidity. There’s a helluva good universe next door—let’s go. (With apologies to ee cummings, who knew insanity when he saw it).

Republicans NEVER actually address this question. In the international women’s rights arena, I’m getting a strong dose of ball-dodging in the last 24 hours. I’ll hold my own there, a bloodied and bruised “cultural imperialist”.

Healthcare is another matter. The yellers must not win.

In all honesty, I don’t believe President Obama is clued in on just how astonished Democrats are regarding his lack of leadership on this topic. I still love the guy, but watching August has been a sobering wakeup call for a lot of people who put him in office. Anne