Cary Tennis After Hours

Musings, outtakes and daydreams

Cary Tennis

Cary Tennis
Location
San Francisco, California, USA
Birthday
September 11
Title
Since You Asked advice columnist
Company
Salon.com
Bio
Cary Tennis writes the Since You Asked advice column for Salon.com. He also leads writing workshops and runs a small publishing company. He lives in the Outer Sunset/Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Francisco with his wife Norma, who is a painter and book designer, and their two standard poodles, Lola and Ricky.

MY RECENT POSTS

MY RECENT COMMENTS

Cary Tennis's Links

Links to things that matter to me
Editor’s Pick
MARCH 22, 2010 9:58PM

Repeal? I take that rather personally!

Rate: 17 Flag

Watching Rachel Maddow recite the many good things the healthcare bill does, I was elated. Hearing that Republicans have vowed to repeal the bill, I was insulted. My insurance pays for life-saving care. My insurance has saved my life. It is easy and natural to shield oneself from the bloody, painful, grievous facts behind the numbers when one is not, oneself, one of the numbers.

Having cruised along healthy for so long, I was able to put out of mind the gruesome, deathly consequences of a broken healthcare system.

I can no longer treat it as an abstraction. I take it personally. So I am happy when progress is made and angry when such progress is threatened.

Do Republicans know how murderous they sound? When your life depends on decisions made by people whose faces you will never see, based on rules you had no part in making, in a language so technical you cannot parse it, you finally, truly encounter your own vulnerability to the actions of states and institutions.

To a person in such a vulnerable state, any attempt to limit care or reverse the expansion of care or take away power that has been granted to people or take back moneys granted to seniors or allow more people to be dropped by their insurance companies or in any way to deny anyone the healthcare they need ... well, frankly, I'm just speechless.

I just wish I could write like Glenn Greenwald.

I now want to work more openly for political change. I have stayed out of the political fray for many years, finding it more skillfully and brilliantly played by our political team led so admirably by Joan Walsh.

But if you find my approach to ethical, moral and spiritual problems of some relevance to your life, if you have come to know me as a decent, thoughtful person, certainly imperfect, given to excess, occasionally verbose and self-absorbed but of fundamentally decent and positive character, then perhaps when I take a political stand from time to time you will see the reason in it and see fit to join me. Or perhaps you will choose to try and show me the error of my thinking.

Either way: I must take a public stand on issues where it can do some good.

Having emerged from a harrowing experience, running the last leg of my long route toward recovery, I hope that this is not an ephemeral change of heart, but one that sticks.

I do not know exactly when I can return to writing a regular column, but I hope it can be soon, and I hope that I can find a way to write while undergoing my next course of treatment.

Be well. Celebrate. 

Author tags:

cancer, chordoma, health, cary tennis, surgery, recovery

Your tags:

Recipient's email address:
Personal message (optional):

Your email address:
Cancel

Comments

Type your comment below:
Cancel
We didn't have insurance growing up. My dad didn't have insurance when my mom died of Hodgkins Lymphoma. I didn't have insurance in my first marriage with two growing, and often sick, kids. I didn't have insurance when I rolled my car at 19 and told the sheriff I couldn't go to the hospital to see what was wrong with my hip. Whatever was wrong with my hip has been with me all these years - L5S1 nerve entrapment hurts like hell.

I know firsthand what not being able to afford insurance feels like. It feels like crap. It feels like you don't matter and no one cares. It feels like you could die, or your child could die, like your dog did when you didn't have the money for the vet.

I was a have not. And I knew that the haves didn't care. They still don't. They can cheapen it if they want by calling it Obamacare, because maybe he does.
retiredtoosoon
March 22, 2010 11:08 PM
Thanks, Cary. I think the Dems might have had this wrapped up sooner had they raised the moral issue more forcefully. Ed Schultz mentioned this in his wrap-up yesterday. It's about asking ourselves what kind of a country to we want to be. Obama, bless his heart, played into his opponents' hand by promising every penny would be accounted for. Too much of the debate was spent talking about money, too little talking about why we need to do this.
jimmymac1025
March 23, 2010 12:14 AM
Cary, have you read The Healing of America by T.R. Reid? What a revelation! Clear writing with personal experience anecdotes combined with good background information and research. Change could be possible here if the public is informed and we can wrap our minds around the fact that health care should not be a vehicle to make great fortunes for share holders. I was diagnosed with a rare ovarian cancer this year and had to fight for three months to get a PET Scan after my surgery. Keep well and keep fighting.
mollybaby
March 23, 2010 12:31 AM
Using your experience combined with your skill set to reach out to others suffering what you suffered is the only thing that makes some sense out of what you've endured. Calling out the health care industry is one important way. So is what you do in the advice column, respond to someone who feels frightened, alone, and confused, at the beginning of their cancer experience. You have words for them now, you have the seasoned hand to touch them.
greenheron
March 23, 2010 09:02 AM
I dealt with insurance problems last year when I was getting cancer treatments. I was lucky - I "only" had to deal with being laid off, struggling to get Cobra and fighting the insurance company for 11 months to get them to pay for my anti-nausea meds. (I know it could have been much worse.) My family and friends were sympathetic when I was sick, but then they turn around and say "I don't want THOSE people getting free health care." When I point out that I was one of "those people" a few months ago, they harumph and say "umm, I don't mean people like you, I mean those other people". For some reason, many people are unable to understand what it means to be sick and unemployed and unable to get health care - until it happens to them. They can't see the gaps in the system until they fall into one.
Karen W
March 23, 2010 09:37 AM
Cary, I am using this forum to make plain to my fellow Americans that their duty as citizens is to be informed and active in the life of our country. Our government of, by and for the people requires our constant vigilence and participation. When we abdicate that responsibility, control devolves onto whomever steps into the vacuum left by our complacency.

Tweet, blog, call, email, write letters to the editor, to CEO's, to elected officials, to union officials, to religious leaders, to government agencies. Vote with your dollars and vote at the polls. Don't leave the vacuum to be filled by others.
1955Dorian
March 23, 2010 10:55 AM
I wish just ONE of the Obama haters who constantly complain about how THEY are having to subsidize health care for others would have to experience, first-hand, the pain and fear that you've had to suffer Cary.

Compassionate conservatism indeed. Absolutely tripe.
redwriter34
March 23, 2010 11:40 AM
Remember the old line about a conservative is a liberal that was mugged? Well a health reform advocate is one who experienced the "caring" of institutions like Blue Cross or Wellpoint.
Thanks for your post and I hope you occasionally mention in your posts the need for absolute universal accessible health care in the form of single payer (Medicare type) health insurance. Cheaper and more comprehensive than the new private company based plan,its admin costs are a tenth of private companies.
Not to rattle on too long, but stark evidence of this cost burden arrived on my doorstep this morning. A half inch thick "Annual Change of Plan" summary from Blue Cross. It was delivered by private carrier, one for me and one for my wife. And... it was only for a prescription drug benefit. The booklet is 160 pages long and "informs" me about the annual changes to my presription drug plan. It is basically incomprehensible to the average 65 year old. The cost of writing it, printing it for hundreds of thousands of people and sending it by private courier must be in the millions. And my sky high premiums are paying the cost of this waste of time.
Single payer is the only plan that will stop this horrible waste of money and human energy.
rshcasj
March 23, 2010 12:34 PM
"health care should not be a vehicle to make great fortunes for share holders"

How true! That's the trouble with most conservatives. They think only of their own pocketbook, and very little else. They are the people who walk past a dying person, lying on the pavement. Because they think "it's not their problem!"

Like redwriter says, these people need to have it happen to them, so they learn. Many of us had insurance taken away, simply because we got sick. When it happens to them, maybe they will whistle a different tune!
Kenny1948
March 23, 2010 12:51 PM
Sing it, Cary. I also have health insurance, but even so, have often felt helplessly vulnerable to capitalist forces when it comes to my own health care. As my health declines precipitously 18 months ago to the point where a brisk walk could have triggered a heart attack, I waited weeks and weeks and MORE WEEKS for an outpatient procedure that could start my turn around. And no amount of tears and appeals to people in charge could help me. I was terrified of leaving my young daughters without a mother, but apparently I was the only one moved by such a thought. And I HAVE insurance. Thinking about those that don't. It's horrible.
angrymom
March 23, 2010 02:33 PM
I'm also taking it rather personally, Cary. Thanks to this bill (which is imperfect as we all know), a family member who is not in school and who doesn't have a job that provides insurance, would be going off of her parents' insurance. This would be a very bad thing. But now, she can remain on that policy.

And yet, there are people who want to repeal this, screaming that it's some kind of socialist takeover over "1/6th of the economy"? The lack of even the barest shred of compassion continues to dishearten me to the very core.

Be well yourself.
Jeanette DeMain
March 23, 2010 04:33 PM
I have been fortunate enough to have health insurance all of my life, through my employer, and I've also been blessed with not having any major medical issues that put it to the test. But sometimes I wonder if all of those with employment-related insurance realize just how vulnerable they are. What if they have a catastrophic illness or injury and can't work for months? Most employers will only pay the employee's insurance for a limited time, once the individual has exhausted their paid time off. If you're too sick to work, and can't afford to pay the premiums while off work, you lose your coverage just when you need it the worst. There is no safety net for these people, unless they have disability insurance. Adults without minor children have, prior to this bill, not qualified for Medicaid. Having worked for many years in a social service agency, I have seen firsthand what happens to people who are poor and have no insurance. Even if they are on permanent disability and do have coverage, they do not get the same care that those who take for granted their coverage receives. Many physicians do not see patients who are on aid, because they are paid less than their usual fees. So to start with, choice of providers, especially in in rural hours, can be very limited. I have had clients who were referred by their primary doctor for some diagnostic procedure have to travel up to 50 miles because of no local specialists in that field who take Medicaid. For many this is prohibitive. Many do not have cars. Sometimes they go without needed tests because they have no transportation to an out of town specialist. Adults who are not on permanent disability are really out of luck. They go to free clinics, which never have enough staff to meet the need, they go to the emergency room, and, all too often, they just go without.

The healthcare reform bill that was passed isn't perfect, but it is a start. I'm glad President Obama didn't throw in the towel on this issue. Some have insisted that he hasn't done anything; well, now he has done something very important , and the same people are bellyaching about that. He can't please everyone, but I applaud is tenacity in getting this bill passed.
jeanray1113
March 23, 2010 10:00 PM
I am so sorry that you are dealing with your insurance denying the radiology you need to complete your cancer treatment. And I understand why you have mostly, in your column stuck to personal matters with your readers, of which I have been one for many years. But, I am encouraged that you feel the need to get a little more political and add your wisdom to the conversation about our health care. I am hoping that I will end this two years of unemployment/no health ins. soon. Diabetes is taking much of my energy, drive, and confidence in being able to get back to what I used to be. I know there are many more suffering, and they are 'listening' to you. I hope the 'masters of the universe' (Roger Falihee's term) are 'listening' as well.
irish colleen in green
March 24, 2010 05:37 PM
As someone who works in a hospital and has some dealing with commercial insurance and Medicare, readers need to know that Medicare is already rationing coverage. Medicare decides under what particular circumstances a patient can receive approval for a procedure. Medicare decides whether a patient is eligible for an extra day in the hospital or for inpatient rehab prior to returning home, this decison is not the physician's. Medicare does not take into account issues like the fact that you live alone and you have no one to help you. If you don't meet their quite specific criteria, you must be discharged.
Patients with commercial insurance tell me all the time that they called their insurance company and they have the benefits for ___. Having the benefit and getting the insurance company to APPROVE the coverage for that procedure/hospital days/ medical equipment, etc. are two totally different things. Cary can tell you that.
Today I read that with reimbursements changing and more patients potentially accessing care, our already overloaded healthcare system (which by the way doesn't have enough physicians to actually see all of these new patients) we could potentially see waits for services like other countries have.
I am very glad that more people will have access to coverage. As a worker, I have to say I am also concerned about how much this is going to cost me, and how it's going to effect the economy. I am frustrated at Dems and Republicans for their bipartisan shenanigans. I don't think I'm alone in these feelings.

I look forward to hearing Cary's well thought out words on this issue. Cary you could probably teach the politicians a few things about not having to beat someone over the head to make a smart, valid and important point. I am especially looking forward to reading what you have to say on this.
amzggrz1
March 28, 2010 10:27 PM
First, I hope you recover well.

I always find it so hard to talk to Americans about healthcare. Everyone in the US wants to give more people coverage, or at least claim that they want that. But nobody seems to question the concept of "coverage". And coming from a country where healthcare was paid for by the government - and BTW, not a particularly "big" government - that concept seems so stupid to me. Taxes were not a lot higher where I'm from, and it was such a blessing not to have to worry about the whole ball of wax.

And lastly, I hope you recover well.
flightlessBird
April 02, 2010 12:24 PM