A Snow(e) Job For SURE

You know the old saying that this or that GALLS me?

Well, I've finally figured where that saying comes from....as in, it comes straight out of the gut.

A few days ago, plagued by fever and a pain -- as the docs put it -- in the upper right flank, I went to the ER for treatment. Turns out my gall bladder was inflamed or infected or whatever, and on Wednesday, out it came in one of those tiny TV camera surgeries they call laprascopy. At many points during this very long and painful week, fevered, in pain, vomiting, dying of thirst pre-op, I still kept thinking to myself, thank God, at least I have health insurance.

I was well enough to come home yesterday and was congratulating myself today thinking gee whiz, I haven't even needed the old pain pills all day long. Isn't that a miracle?

And then a few minutes ago, along came this tidbit of news, courtesy of my husband, Richard Kirsch, who is leading a campaign here in DC --called Health Care for American Now-- to get quality affordable health coverage for every American.

A cornerstone of this program is a public health insurance option -- option being a critically-important word. Consumers would retain a choice. They could keep the private health insurance plan they wanted, OR they could opt for a government plan. President Obama on Wednesday strongly reaffirmed his public support for such a plan. Big insurance companies of course want to block the public plan because, natch, it would reduce their profits.

Last night, Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, took a very big step to try to kill the public plan. According to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich (during the Clinton administration) Snow convened the meeting on Friday night among lobbyists for the drug and insurance companies to put off the public option and institute only if health care costs don't go down.

"It's just a way of killing the public plan," my husband said, reading Reich's comments to me from his Blackberry.

This infuriated me. When I think about all the people who would be hurt NOT having a public insurance plan, I just rippled with anger.

Yeah, so, that's what galled me. Literally. That's when my gall bladder, now missing for three days, started to ache.

Go figure.

(And by the way, go read the full article on-line at Politico.com!)

We feel what we feel bodily. Our emotions course in biochemical form throughout our bloodstream, saturating our tissues. Literally, we are awash with emotions of one sort or another. All our cells are affected. And sometimes our language tells the tale.

OLYMPIA SNOWE YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED. YOU AND THE REST OF YOUR CRONIES. How would YOU feel if YOU had no health insurance? Huh?