OPINION: Politics shouldn’t overshadow help for the truly needy

This remains a poignant moment in my life. It is how I hope to face things, too, with kindness and giving in the face of true fear. I don’t know that I’ll muster the same. I probably won’t have that strength.

But my grandmother’s final 14 years on earth were truly difficult and sad. Her surgery to remove a tumor left her unable to be herself anymore. She was nauseated and bed ridden for years. She slid further and further into dementia before finally passing in 2007. Our family is certainly not unique. Every family has these sad stories.

And every time we get into policy discussions about big health care issues, I always think of her, because statistics are inadequate in describing life and health. People are not numbers, though they are reduced to that for the sake of policy. This is inevitable, but numbers are incomplete. And that should never be overlooked by the policy makers, who must crunch numbers. Because every number is somebody’s mama, daughter, son, grandmother.

Likewise, my grandmother’s story is my starting point into an adult viewpoint of our health care system. Prior to her demise, I viewed such things through a child’s eyes. But this opened up harsh new realities about life and death and how good people often suffer terribly unjust things.

I realized, too, that every family of an elderly invalid has awful prospects. Can a person give up a job to stay around the clock with a loved one? Can a son or daughter afford to hire someone to stay with that loved one when family is not around? Does the family seek a nursing home to provide constant care?

It’s terribly depressing.

Our family admitted my grandmother to a nursing home. She had to be drained of all assets by the government before Medicaid kicked in to cover any of the costs. I mention this because Medicaid is a last, terrible option for many elderly in this position. It is not something I want for myself at all. I want to be able to leave something for my family when that time comes. I know she did too.

I think of her whenever I hear people rip Medicaid as just another perk for “do nothings.” There are certainly people in this world, in this nation, who seek to rob the system, who seek to profit off the government by cheating the average taxpayer. This is an attitude that extends across all fiscal spectrums. Greed shows its ugly head among the rich and poor alike. That’s not a class warfare statement; it’s just a human truth.

But the stories of Medicaid recipients vary from those who leech off the system to those who are truly hard-working people in bad circumstances. Blanket judgments are inadequate either way.

No doubt, Medicaid and Medicare are due for reform. There’s no way our system can hold up over the long haul. We have an aging population and a system infected with rampant health care inflation.

But any reform needs to start with a base level recognition of goals. For instance, we must not sacrifice what is truly important: We must continue to identify and help those truly in need — the child with a heart defect, the adult with Down’s Syndrome, the grandmother with dementia.

Beyond any other issue, the care of those who truly can’t care for themselves is imperative. It is fundamental to moral rightness in America. It should not be a liberal or conservative cry. It should be a unified voice of compassion for the truly needy. This should never be lost amid all our political fights. When we lose sight of this simple truth, we lose our way.

Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal.