New Blog from Steve Gold: First Entry is a “Modest Proposal” on Health Care Reform

Steve Gold is a long time friend, ally and warrior in the disability rights movement. Of special interest to NDYers is that Steve was the primary author and Counsel of Record on the NDY amicus brief in the 1996 Supreme Court cases examining assisted suicide as a “constitutional right.” Steve has written and filed other briefs on behalf of NDY since then, some of which can be found here.

Many disability activists and advocates are on Steve’s mailing list or check his website for Steve Gold’s Nuggets of Information on housing, medical assistance/medicaid, nursing homes, education and other useful ADA-related information.

Steve has now joined the world of bloggers and blogging.

I expect to be checking SteveGoldADA regularly to see what he’s up to and what he’s writing.

Steve’s first entry cuts is a sort of “modest proposal” – with his own (tongue in cheek) suggestions on Preventing Health Care Reform from Burdening Our Country:

Every day 14,000 Americans lose their health coverage. More than 46 million people are without health care. But maybe many of these people really do not deserve and should not receive health care. Just because someone is poor or ill or disabled does not mean he or she deserves health care.

Similarly, many of the remaining millions of people who are already paying for private health insurance or are receiving publicly funded health care do not deserve the benefits they take for granted.

We must cut costs and the only fair way is to deny health care to all people who do not deserve to receive it.

Throughout the current health care debate, we have worn blind folds. In darkness, we have each touched a part of the health crisis, like the elephant’s tail, trunk, or ear. Based on what we touched, we thought we understood the problem and had the answers.

But just feeling up part of the animal is not enough. The trick is to figure out how we decide who really should not receive health care. Who is unworthy of receiving it? How we can persuade them not to request or receive health care? Once we figure this, we will significantly reduce our health costs.

The goal: Increase the number of people among us who should not receive health care because they do not worthy.

We have assumed that there is a health care crisis because of the health care insurance companies, the pharmaceutical drug companies, the doctors and hospitals, and the lawyers. But these folks represent only part of the trunk and the elephant’s left front foot.

No, the cause of the health crisis is much bigger. It’s them – those people who do not deserve unlimited health care – for themselves, for their children, for their parents.

Please read the rest here. And remember – it’s satire. Steve’s one of the good guys. –Stephen Drake