Never Walked In High Heels

My last article on health care entitled, “Why this Health Care Thing Scares Me” attracted such a visceral response from some of you that I realized that it was quite the hot-button topic. Doubting the validity and moral stability of a national healthcare system, suddenly seemed like insulting apple pie, the American flag, and little baby bunnies. So here we go again…

I’ll start at the beginning. I am a woman with Cerebral Palsy who was put into private therapy at the age of six months. My family was extremely poor at the time and doing so was an incredible sacrifice of time, energy, and money on their part. At the same time I was also placed into therapy provided through the government at a public school when I began my early childhood education at the age of three. Thus, I saw both sides of the picture. The private therapy, which was paid for directly from a pocket book, and the public kind given for free. The difference is striking.

After a therapist at school informed my mother that, “Walking is not a reasonable goal for her” a Kindergarten teacher saw the fallacy of this argument and immediately gave up half of her lunch period to help me learn to walk. When my mother took news of this assessment back to the private therapist, they agreed with the school teacher and the goal of walking was added to my list of well defined goals that would continue to be worked on for the next 16 years. The goals at school were nebulous. Therapists were underpaid and overworked and the quality of therapy never came anywhere near what was available within a private clinic. I have no doubt in my mind that if it wasn’t for the private clinic of Pathways Center for Children, I would not be nearly as able-bodied as I am today. The format of therapy in public school consists of government goals and regulations thought up by some expert in Washington who has probably never seen a disabled child, let alone this one in particular.

What I’m writing here is my own story. I have no doubt that there are some great physical therapists, who work within the public school systems. The ones even I had were sometimes outstanding, but the pressure and paperwork placed on them by a needless bureaucracy made their jobs so much less efficient than they could have been.

But as is typical with any of my personal experiences this one doesn’t fit inside that box. The first abnormality comes from the conservative argument that healthcare is much worse in socialized systems such as is visible in the UK. Every single one of the private therapists I had were trained by people at the Bobath Clinic, which is a resource specializing in providing top therapy for individuals with Cerebral Palsy. This clinic is actually in the south of England and while it is funded in a multitude of different ways, it goes against the statement that, “all UK healthcare offices are rubbish.”

The second thing you must be aware of is that my family could not afford to give me private therapy and so the family who started Pathways Center for Children subsidized a great many therapy sessions for children in similar circumstances including myself. For many years, my therapy cost my family next to nothing and it was through the generosity of the Ryans (the clinics founders), and the blessing of their wealth that I was able to undergo treatment. In a system where everyone is financially equal, no one could afford to have the outstanding treatment I received. Not only the abilities that many doctors claimed were impossibilities but the desire to create enough capital someday to give other children the same opportunities. By eliminating private healthcare, these systems and avenues are cut off and unavailable to those who need it most.

When thinking about politics I am often reminded of a line from Thornton Wilder’s, Our Town. A town official at one point says that we all want the same thing. We want the people who need services to be able to get them, and those who are going to milk the services to be kept away from taking advantage of the system That’s what I want. That’s really what we all want, but we also live in a fallen world where even with healthcare for everyone, not everyone’s needs will be treated. To those who call me extremist and cold-hearted, I would ask this. Does your opinion come from firsthand experience? Have you read my story? Is my experience not as valid as yours, and should my concerns be ignored because they do not fit with your agenda? Answer this truthfully and honestly. Growing up I wasn’t a member of a particular political party (in truth, I’m still not). I was just a kid who knew what she saw and experienced, and refused to forget it.