More on I-1000 from HorsesAss

I met with Nancy N., the spokesperson for I-10O0 at DL Tuesday and saw much of the same thing Lee does here. Nancy is on a crusade, driven by the horror of her husband’s death. I began to feel she was supporting I-1000 out of revenge rather than compassion. Others at our table, including a supporter of I-1000, were shocked.

As in Lee’s earlier diatribe against Joel, she gave me an earful about the Church to the point I had to keep telling her I am not a Catholic. Apparently she was raised in the Church and has turned against it. That is fine by me, but whatever gripe she has with Catholicism is hardly a reason to diss Catholics for taking a moral stand.

I tried to switch the subject to concerns about misuse of I-1000 in the treatment of poor people, unable to afford expensive terminal care unless they impoverish themselves to get on Medicare. Nancy attacked me … saying her husband was “not affluent.” She reminded me of McCain trying to define an income of $250,000 as middle class.

Finally, in the most bizarre thing of all, she said that placing this terribly private matter in the public sphere, was a good thing! Having just watched my own Dad go through a terminal illness, I am grateful for not having had to register his decisions with the government, ask two docs to certify them and then subject all of us to sdome psychologist’s effort to determine whether the emotions associated with his last days comprised “depression.”

I tried to be gentle and argued that even good intents can go awry. We talked about the effects of HIPPA. HIPPA is an federal act meant to protect all of use from insurance companies misuse of our health data. As someone with a couple of chronic diseases, I can tell you that somehow the effin drug companies and insurance companies have gamed this system and have free access to my data while my own physicians now need to leap over HIPPA to just talk to each other.

For what it is worth to HA readers, estimates of what HIPPA has cost now run into the billions, not only in health care but massive increases in bureaucracy associated with medical research.

Nancy told me she did not care about how much HIPPA cost, the medical system deserved what it got. I was left thinking she is out to revenge her husband’s death.

I do not mean to tar all supporters of I-1000 with this brush. I would vote for a different version for the law. But, saying people lie, dismissing arguments that come from religion, and faili8ng to show concern for the poor … these tactics are abhorrent.