Can't Afford Healthcare for Your Kids? You Could Go to Prison!

If you're a Parent and you can't afford Healthcare 

for your Children, YOU could go to Prison!

This is the story of a typical, lower class American family: uneducated parents with minimum wage jobs, supporting five children, in a constant struggle to pay their bills -  Monica Hussing and William Robinson couldn't afford health insurance for themselves and their children.  So when their 8-year old son, Willie's, glands started swelling they visited a "free" clinic, trying to get Willie the support he needed.  When they were told they would have to pay $180 just to get a diagnosis, which they couldn't afford, they went home and attempted several times to get help from social services.

Willie's swollen glands would come and go, and for months he appeared to be unaffected by them.  His sister stated that he still played like a normal kid, even wrestled and played video games.  "He was the happiest kid you could imagine.  It never seemed like he was suffering."  A social worker that visited the family implored the family to get Willie a medical check-up, but his parents decided they had to wait until financial assistance came through so that they could pay for medical insurance. 

Suddenly, Willie started feeling sick with cold/flu like symptoms.  He begged his parents to take him to the doctor, but they couldn't afford it, so his mother started giving him cold medicine.  Within 3 days of the onset of these symptoms, Willie collapsed at his home and died.  His autopsy showed that he had died from pneumonia, which was intensified because Willie had also been suffering from Hodgkins Lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the lymph system.

Since Hodgkin's Lymphoma has a 93% recovery rate, and the fact that several witnesses testified that Willie was pale and thin and appeared extremely sick - his parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering a child, and felony assault.  After a trial that lasted several years, Monica and William have plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and each face up to 8 years in prison.

The most fascinating aspect of this story is the widespread blame and hatred that people across the US are expressing towards Willie's parents.  There is even a poll on a popular website where 99% of voters say that Willie's parents "deserve to go to hell" for not taking him to get a medical check-up.  Comments on several websites threaten violence towards the parents, saying they should face the same pain that Willie suffered, or even worse.  Other people sympathize with the parents but blame social services and social workers for being lazy and inattentive.

Using common sense, we can see that blaming does not solve anything.  We blame in order to get a temporary feeling of satisfaction that "justice has been done", and through this we allow ourselves to ignore the fact that in order to keep another child like Willie from dying, we must step up and change the system that we're living in.  So, let's take a moment to really SEE the reality of what caused Willie to die, so we can see HOW we can stop this from ever happening to another child again.



Currently in America, each person is responsible to pay for their own healthcare and the healthcare of their children.  Healthcare is expensive, even when it is just preventative care such as yearly check-ups, and the cost rises exponentially if we get into an accident or if we get an illness.  Many Americans have health insurance, which is like a membership where we pay a certain amount monthly in order to get healthcare at a lower cost.

If you have health insurance and you get sick, the health insurance company will pay a certain percentage of your bill, while you pay the rest.  In some cases, the health insurance companies are able to lower the hospital bill by 95%, which clearly shows that hospitals are overcharging for their services


 
Research shows that currently in America,  52 million people don't have health insurance.  In Willie's case, even if his parent's HAD taken him to a doctor and diagnosed his cancer, they likely would not have been able to get insurance because Willie's cancer would be considered a "pre-existing condition".  When a person has a pre-existing condition, health insurance companies realize that they will not make money from years of "membership fees" from that person and will actually lose money by paying for their treatment, so they refuse to support the person who desperately needs medical care.

This is how the US Health Insurance Industry has become a $677 Billion industry, where healthy people to pay out of fear that they will get sick, and sick people get turned down for treatment that they desperately need- which in turn supports the US Medical industry, a $1.75 Trillion industry, to increase costs of treatments and care each year.

In Willie's case, even if his parents had been able to afford that $180 diagnosis at the free clinic, without insurance they would have hospital bills adding up to around $300,000 for x-rays, blood tests, chemo/radiation, medication, and follow up doctors visits.  They would be facing a debt that would be impossible to pay off in their lifetime.  They would have to decide whether to sacrifice their entire family's future in order to try to make sure Willie survived - IF Willie survived treatment... 


The reason Willie died is that WE have accepted and allowed an economic system which values money above all - and since every aspect of our lives is guided by this economic system, we have made each child's right to access healthcare completely dependent on the amount of money their parents have and how educated they are.  We have accepted and allowed ourselves to isolate ourselves into small groups - based on name and blood - so that we don't have to take responsibility for the child that dies - we can simply blame that death on their family.  The reality is, we are each and all responsible for Willie's death - we turned a blind eye and allowed him to suffer - because we allow this system where children are not guaranteed support and care from the moment of their birth.

At the most fundamental level, we can see that this is completely unacceptable.  Ask yourself, if YOU or YOUR CHILD developed Cancer, wouldn't you like to know that you were guaranteed access to the best healthcare possible without any limitation.  The only way you and your children can be guaranteed the best healthcare, with no financial limitations, is to make sure EVERYONE has that guarantee - that healthcare is a HUMAN RIGHT which is given to everyone EQUALLY.

YOU are the KEY to make this Guarantee!  

Be one vote for an Equal Money System, where no child will ever be denied access to Healthcare and Medical support!