Once upon a time, I thought that we were living in a culture that would eventually “rise to meet the road” of health care in the developed world. I had the belief that we were getting somewhere, albeit not as instantaneously as I would have liked to see more than 35 years ago when I obtained a Master’s of Public Health from the University of Texas. And not at expeditiously as I would have preferred more than 30 years ago when I became a licensed attorney.
As Dylan suggested in a song, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”
As predictably as I have flipped out about the Dark Side direction our government has taken since January, I have been rejuvenated by an invisible and indivisible force. And this rising force is directly proportional to the voices of the many. The voices that I have been hearing about the unacceptable turning away from human rights and planetary responsibilities.
And there are voices that I have been hearing about a legal and regulatory system that increasingly insists that the only important standard of care is the bottom line. And that anyone who places human welfare above that bottom line or approaches their human mistakes with contrition and accountability is going to get crushed.
I cannot provide legal representation to most of these voices for a variety of reasons. Some of them are personal, financial, ethical, political or a combination of those reasons. But I sincerely believe that all of these voices need to be heard. It is a just a small corner in the grand march of human events in the 21st century, but there are a lot of folks who share that small corner. And the common thread to stitches their stories together as health care providers is a trouble on their minds about health care. They all care. They have all been hurt.
Being an attorney, I have spent a lot of time figuring out what questions to ask. I am usually chock full of questions. Just ask me about it.
Please understand if I do not have the answer to most of these questions. I will admit to having a lot of opinions and relatively few answers.
This site and my time on this site is devoted to bringing those voices and stories to you, because whoever you are, you may have the answers. Actually, I know that you have the answers. It’s only a matter of time before you speak up.
Feel free to speak here. Thanks.
