MJ and Healthcare Reform?

I’m just finishing up a presentation outlining the basics of healthcare reform and I feel like my head might explode.

Lesson? There is no such thing as healthcare reform basics.

On July 4th, I was at my parent’s house for a barbecue with my husband and two girls. When we sat down for dinner, my mother asked me how work was going and I told her that I was working on this healthcare reform presentation.

Naturally, this peaked curiosity for others at the table, including my mother’s childhood friend who is a nurse practitioner.

“Oh! And what have you learned, Claire?” she asks.

Why is it that even as a thirty-one-year-old professional with a career, a husband and two children, my parent’s friends can still make me feel like a sixteen-year-old who is doing a book report?

“Ummm…well, I learned that its…complicated?” I search for her approval.

“That’s right. Anything you would like to share?” she adds while passing the corn-on the-cob.

Just then, my inner sixteen-year-old decided to spew as much info at her that she couldn’t possibly make sense of it, or argue, or try and tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about because I am an adult and I DESERVE TO BE TREATED LIKE I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING!

Phew! Sorry about that.

By the end of my rant, there were opinions being thrown out all over the place, from what it means to be American, to physician accountability, to responsible medicine, to owning surgery centers, to Canada, to medical errors, President Obama, the AHRQ and finally…

wait for it…

Michael Jackson.

Now, how the heck did we land on Michael Jackson?

I couldn’t tell you for the life of me. But, I share this story with you, because for a good 45 minutes, we all shared our opinions about the health of Americans, of human beings and the fact that we all have a stake in the humanity of others…like …Michael Jackson.

May he rest in peas (as my 3-year-old says).

To me, there was no better to way to celebrate our independence than to share in healthy debate with everyone and some good ole’ corn-on-the-cob.

I believe in my work.
Claire