By David Blitzman
Watertown Resident
My cousin’s life was saved by Obamacare. Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection Act expanded health coverage for Americans, improved consumer protections, and decreased costs for American consumers.
Prior to this act, she was stuck in medical limbo (hell) fighting with insurance as so many Americans are forced to do. However, due to the passage of the Obamacare, her insurance was now mandated to cover the surgery that saved her life. It is due to this fact, that I will always be grateful for Obamacare and how government intervention can and did make the world a better place. And yet, I remain unsatisfied. I am unsatisfied that people in America must choose between live-saving medication or rent. Or their deductible or their childcare. Or their premiums or their groceries.
We in America are living in an affordability crises. We as residents of Watertown are blessed by good fortune as we have direct access to some of the best hospitals in the nation if not the world. And yet, people cannot access this life-saving medical care as they cannot afford to do so. We must not wait.
We must act and implement Medicare for All in Massachusetts. Medicare for All, also known as single payer healthcare, is a type of healthcare system where a public entity, that is, the government pays for most or all of the healthcare costs for its citizens while medical care can be provided by private and/or public healthcare professionals. In this system, everyone is covered regardless of income, background, or any other factor. Since Medicare for All is funded through taxes, it eliminates insurance premiums for private insurances.
Each year, medical debt is one of the influencing factors affecting over fifty percent of American declaring bankruptcy. Medicare for All has the ability to end this shameful statistic once and for all. We know for sure that during this specific presidency, we have no chance of passing Medicare for All on the federal level so we must push for this change on a state-wide basis.
As a Watertown resident, I am proud to say that eight out of nine Watertown City Councilors signed a letter in support of Medicare for All for Massachusetts thanks to MassCare’s organizational efforts. You can read the letter here.
I would like to pivot and talk about healing for a second. As a social worker as well as therapist, I am tasked with analyzing both internal and external protective factors as well as potential stressors whenever clients enter treatment.
We as a society must radically reconceptualize what protection means to us. Protection does not and should not only mean a person with a gun and a badge that acts retroactively after an unwholesome action has been committed. We must instead shift our understanding to a more proactive communal engagement with one another as the same members of the human race.
I always tell my clients that we must take “proactive, pragmatic, bite-sized steps. We want to act before something negative happens rather than acting afterwards.” Medicare for All is and will always be a protective factor in my eyes. It allows the citizenry access to affordable care after removing the (blood-sucking) middle party.
What does this mean in terms of health and well being? It means more affordable care. Which means more access to preventative health screenings. Fewer bills. And fewer broken families whose lives were devastated by bills and the soul-crushing medical debt that comes after a broken system.
Another phrase I like to tell my clients is “The body and brain are one. And so too are mental and physical health.” Taking care of one is also taking care of another. Going for a walk, going to the gym, or doing yoga helps both. So does meditation, talk therapy, and spending time with loved ones. Medicare for All can and will have a beautiful and vitally needed healing effect our society deserves and is quite frankly, in my eyes, is searching for.
It does not have to be like this. We do not have to accept this way of life as not just as Americans but as members of the same human race. As a devout Buddhist, I believe all are one under Love. And though that Love may speak in different tongues, present in different narratives, and be felt and experienced a little differently depending on context, I think we are all more the same than different. And most importantly, we are all here to love and care for on another.
We must implement Medicare for All so that people can have access to affordable healing. And in doing so, we can fulfill the reason I believe we came to this earth in the first place.
About the author
David (He, Him, His) LCSW has been a resident of Watertown since 1999. He was a student of the Watertown Public School system from grades 1-12. He is an active member of Indivisible Progressive Watertown as well as MassCare. David identifies as culturally Jewish and spiritually Buddhist. He is most thankful to Master Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö as well as Thich Nhat Hanh for their spiritual dedication and legacy.