Progressive Thinking

Madison man says the worldwide coronavirus outbreak should be a wake-up call to all Americans, regardless of their politics, that they are vulnerable to the disastrous health and financial devastation of the current "Trump/ GOP No Health Care" position.

MADISON - The worldwide coronavirus outbreak is a wake-up call to all Americans about the need for Universal Health Care. Whether or not you currently have health insurance, you are 1 emergency room visit and/or 1 hospital visit away from financial ruin thanks to America's current, broken, health care system. Medical/healthcare costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. with 530,000 bankruptcies annually linked to medical costs.

While most Americans do have some level of health insurance, there currently are 27.5 million Americans that do not have health insurance (even though Obamacare since its enactment in 2010 has enabled some 20 million Americans to obtain health insurance). Over the past 2 weeks the worldwide coronavirus outbreak has resulted in several countries taking extreme precautions to slow or prevent outbreaks. And now in the U.S., with deaths as well as confirmed cases beginning to be identified in several states, the American public is becoming extremely worried about being able to afford unexpected medical bills, insurance deductibles and co-pays, as well as prescription drug costs that would occur if they or one or more family members contracted the virus.

And all Americans - whether they have health insurance or not - should be worried because of the costs involved if they need emergency medical care. If a person is coughing, wheezing, or having difficulty breathing, a trip to the emergency room to find out if it is the coronavirus can result in $3000 to $5,000 or more in charges (even if the hospital had any of the scarce test kits). And if the person would need a ventilator to enable breathing and thus would have to be hospitalized, the medical costs would go up exponentially.

And for the 27.5 million Americans without health insurance, the cost of that emergency room visit and possible hospitalization would probably bankrupt them - even if it was just one person. And if the situation involved additional family members as well, the result would be even more financially devastating. Furthermore, even for a person / family that has health insurance, just the financial burden of most insurance policy's $2000 to $4000 deductible, plus the 20% insurance copay for treatment of each family member affected, could wipe out much or all of a family's emergency fund and/or savings.

So if, heaven forbid, there is a disastrous spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. like there currently is in China, potentially resulting in many hundreds of thousands (or even millions ) of Americans going to emergency rooms and having to be tested and/or hospitalized, there will be a horrific number of families facing bankruptcy in the near future.

Consequently, the worldwide coronavirus outbreak is a wake-up call to all Americans about the need for universal health care. Thus, every American, whatever their party affiliation, needs to vote out of office President Trump and every Republican member of Congress and state legislator that has enabled the current, broken situation to exist. A situation where a majority of Americans are vulnerable to the disastrous health and financial devastation of the current "Trump/ GOP No Health Care" position that, in reality, will prove to be a physical and/or financial death sentence for many Americans.

Randall Schumann
Madison, WI

When America consisted of 13 colonies 244 years ago, the colonists enacted a Declaration of Independence and forcibly in a war, got rid of America's first "King" -- England's King George III.

MADISON, WI - In the 3 years since Donald Trump has been President, he has continually violated his Oath of Office to "uphold the Constitution" which establishes 3 co-equal parts of government. The executive branch (President), the legislative branch (Congress), and the judicial branch. But rather than uphold the constitutionally established separation of powers, Trump has unconstitutionally refused to comply with mandated requirements to provide Congress with lawfully subpoenaed documents, and has vilified Federal court decisions that have determined numerous actions and executive orders of Trump to be unconstitutional.

And most recently during Trump's impeachment (non) trial in the Senate, a Trump defense attorney, Alan Dershowitz, argued that whatever Trump does as President, "if it is something he believed would get him elected in the public interest, he could not be impeached for it."

That arrogant argument essentially says that there are no constitutional limits on a President's power, that the powers of Congress under the Constitution are null and void, and as a consequence, Donald Trump is, in effect, a 'King" who is above the law and cannot be called to account by Congress under the Constitution.

Interestingly, a recent article noted that the same inability to separate the personal interests of a leader (such as Trump) from the country he leads (America) has echoes to ancient Rome. Roughly 2,000 years ago, the Roman Senate over a relatively short period of time, abdicated to their "princeps"/ "first among equals" leader, the Senate's oversight powers over the military, their veto authority over legislation, and also granted any Princep immunity from prosecution. Not surprisingly, the result was that what had been a "first among equals" leader became a series of "Emperors" with sole, unquestioned authority over the Senate and the Roman people. Another result was the notion that the identity of the Emperor was inseparable from the identity of the State, such that any disagreement with the Emperor was an attack against the state itself - and thus arguably "treasonous" subject to the death penalty. The final result of Rome and its Senate/government allowing the creation of Emperors was the fall of the Roman empire.

If that description of what happened with the creation of Emperors in Rome 2000 years ago sounds familiar, that is because it also describes Trump's defense attorney Dershowitz's argument referenced above in Trump's Impeachment (non) trial in the Senate.

The bottom line: America forcibly got rid of its first "King" 244 years ago. Americans now need to learn from both Roman history 2000+ years ago, and from our own Revolutionary War, and act in little more than 244 Days to vote out of office and get rid of, a President who sees himself as, and acts as, a King /Emperor in violation of his oath to uphold our Constitution.

Randy Schumann
Madison, WI