Of Dr. E., Me, and Dick Cheney

We call her Dr. E., one of the most remarkable women I have had the privilege of knowing almost exclusively through TMV and one delightful hour-long telephone conversation on her nickel. We share numerous ailments brought about by the scavenging effects of diabetes but, if you read her post today, it dwarfs my ailments to a mere pittance.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes in simple terms argues for insurance carriers to drop their nasty policy of denying coverage to patients with pre-existing medical conditions. If nothing else comes out of our national debate on health care reform, this evil practice must be legislated against and banned forever.

Dr. E has a compassion for mankind way beyond my wildest dreams on a good day. I’m just a cynical, washed up old newspaperman. I do know my politics. Consider this prospect:

If all members of Congress only had the health care and insurance coverage Dr. E and I can afford, do you think for one minute this on-going debate — started by President Truman — would still be going? I don’t think so. Consider this scenario:

Let’s say Dick Cheney had had his first heart attack as a Congressman under the coverage Dr. E and I now have. His coverage would have been dropped or his premium reset so high it would force him into bankruptcy. Instead, his coverage continued to pay for at least three more heart surgeries and an undisclosed number of relapses. Who knows? Without the health coverage the federal bureaucracy offers, would Cheney suddenly turn champion of — oh, my god — a single-payer system?

Preposterous, you say? Not so fast, my friends. Conservatives and Liberal Cheney bashers suffered apoplexy when he said in interviews he supported same-sex marriage. And why did he buck his president and the conservatives who consider the issue as un-Christian, sinful and every other imagined dastardly deed?

Because one of his daughters is a lesbian. Give the man credit. He saw in his daughter the pains she was suffering as a subject of his peers’ public disgrace. If it takes personal experience to enlighten one’s view on a hot-button issue, terrific.

My goodness, folks. If Cheney — the sultan of darkness — can announce his views on same-sex marriage, why couldn’t Congress come together on a reasonable health care plan if we had the power to jerk their current coverage as they have with ours?

Nothing like putting the shoe on the other’s foot.

The thing is, Dr. E and I do the best we can coping with what we got. It could be so much better that I hazard to guess.