It was just after 3 p.m. on this Good Friday, a time when the Christian World acknowledges the death of Christ and his dead body's removal from the Cross. This moment of annual Historical remembrance was barely noticed by a soft-spoken and broken couple as he dipped and she napped while leaning against a wall at their typical location, the intersection of This and That.
He had just injected his latest dose of medicine which his body demands. He was dipping out from its effect. She lay next to him exhausted from the never-ending requirement of doing ‘dates’ to fund their combined drug use.[1]
As the dip and the nap came to a natural conclusion for each, she stood up next to him and rubbed his neck and they loved on each other the way a devoted couple does. She then put on some makeup in preparation for the man who would be picking her up for a weekend-long date for his own pleasures.
As the car pulled away, I could not help but realize the power play that had just transpired in front of me. It’s an unspoken monologue of the 'date' to the long-time lover of the lady who is trapped in the middle of this drama.
"I'm going to have sex with your lady because I have the money and you have the addiction."
The actual lover of the lady has no rebuttal available. He's trapped. As the woman of this[2] heterosexual couple, she's the breadwinner. She raises the money by making herself available to any guy who will pay her for 'services.'
Is "trapped" the right word for this situation?
In their medically weakened and spiritually broken condition, can they endure the climb up "Medicaid Mountain" with its narrow cliff trails and absence of guard rails that would keep them from falling?
Most people in such a condition can't make the climb up the mountain. It's easier to stay on the known side of the mountain than it is to climb it in hopes of getting to the land of healing and renewed health.
So, in that sense "trapped" is the right word.
The medical and legislative powers that be must plow down Medicaid Mountain!
To do so, every real and perceived obstacle that the patient claims is holding them back from starting the journey to healing must be identified and removed from the path. While it's very true that the patient must do the work of their own healing, the medical community must make it possible for the patient to do so.
All patients of any
medical diagnosis have the right to decide when they will seek professional help
toward healing. When any Medicaid-reliant Substance
Use Disorder patient finds that ready moment, they must not be required to
climb a mountain before getting to the care they now want.
Plow down Medicaid Mountain and you will untrap this soft-spoken and currently broken couple.
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