A Congressional Visit to Wise County

With speculation growing that Congress will not be able to pass health care legislation before they recess in August, you might be tempted to think this is the result of partisan bickering, or perhaps the lobbyists who are spending millions to make sure this legislation gets stalled out.

But Republican Senator Judd Gregg has a more creative explanation: "the calendar doesn’t work.’’ Apparently there's just not enough time to play politics with the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, and still work on health care. And, since Congress didn't invent the Gregorian calendar (which, apparently, is broken), we can't hold them accountable.

Of course, we also can't expect Congress to shorten it's month long August "recess" just to deal with a problem that affects 75 million adults (42 percent of the under-65 adult population) who are either uninsured or underinsured in America.

They could better spend their time visiting this year's free medical clinic in Wise County, Virginia, Last year's clinic treated more than 2,500 people at the Wise County fairgrounds over a three day period, but thousands that came from surrounding states were turned away. It's sponsored by Remote Area Medical, a remarkable organization that provides free medical services, thanks to the efforts of medical professionals who volunteer their time. It's a no-frills event, with patients being treated in tents and cattle stalls.

It was a visit to the Wise County medical clinic a couple for years ago that led Wendell Potter to leave a well-paying job and speak out against the industry he had been a part of. Potter had been the head of Public Relations for CIGNA (one of the nation's largest insurers), but came to realize the fundamental untruth behind the lies he helped create.

In a recent interview with Bill Moyers on PBS, Potter explained how his trip to Wise County changed his views on the health care industry he had been a part of:

"It was absolutely stunning. It was like being hit by lightning. It was almost --what country am I in? I just it just didn't seem to be a possibility that I was in the United States. It was like a lightning bolt had hit me."

"But when you're in the executive offices, when you're getting prepared for a call with an analyst, in the financial medium, what you think about are the numbers. You don't think about individual people. You think about the numbers, and whether or not you're going to meet Wall Street's expectations. That's what you think about, at that level. And it helps to think that way. That's why you--that enables you to stay there, if you don't really think that you're talking about and dealing with real human beings."

Although Wendell Potter testified before the U.S. Senate last month, Senator Gregg's feeble excuse suggests they have yet to really understand the problem. Imagine what would happen if you explained to your boss that you didn't do the job you were hired to do because "the calendar doesn’t work."

You might find yourself unemployed, and standing in line for health care in Wise County.