I saw the following being shared on Facebook:
Pictured is a young physician by the name of Dr. Roger Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a “Culture Crisis” instead of a “Health Care Crisis”..
It’s worth a quick read:
Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as “Medicaid”! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman’s health care? I contend that our nation’s “health care crisis” is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a “crisis of culture” a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that “I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me”. Once you fix this “culture crisis” that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you’ll be amazed at how quickly our nation’s health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD
If you agree…pass it on.
RULE NUMBER ONE: Anything that says “if you agree, pass this on” is a SCAM.
This time, however, it’s not as much of a scam as it is an exaggeration. It looks like this story is becoming increasingly exaggerated to drive home the message, but I certainly agree with the basic idea of our culture’s fundamental flaw. It reminds me of a speech that I cannot for the life of me remember now, talking about how our nation doesn’t have an economic deficit, we actually have a moral deficit. (Can anyone PLEASE jog my memory on that? It’s driving me crazy!)
Snopes has published the original letter as it appeared in a Mississippi newspaper. It is not addressed to the President. There is also a response letter from another reader which is worth skimming – in summary it says that the country as a whole needs to stop listening to the politicians and “news” on TV and start getting familiar with the actual text of the bills going through Congress. Amen.
