Message from Scott to Becca

Note: Two posts to Rebecca from Scott have been lost in cyberspace. I am graciously allowing Scott to post his message here on my blog. After it has been posted, we'll attempt again to post it as a response to Rebecca's blog, but at least she'll get to read the immortal words of my Uncle Scott either way.

Note from Scott: In this third attempt to post a message to Rebecca, I'll try to remember what I wrote the first two times, but I'll undoubtedly omit something. I hope that the basic essence of my message remains.

Dear Becca,
You have officially entered your senior year of high school. Some people will tell you that this year is the greatest year of your life, and that you should enjoy it because you'll never get it back. I agree that one's senior year is a year to be enjoyed and remembered. On the other hand, the greatest year of your life? I certainly hope it isn't. A few souls among us may have peaked at the age of seventeen, only to watch everything go steadily downhill from there. I'm confident such will never be the case for you. While you will have life-long memories from this year, life continues to get better for anyone who keeps an open mind and who goes onto learn and to seek new experiences throughout her life.

You're nearing that magical age of eighteen -- the official entry to adulthood. For most of us, the association with the age of eighteen and adulthood is nominal. Few young people have the resources to be 100% finacially independent at the age of eighteen, which is actually juat as well, because even fewer people at that age possess the emotional maturity to be the sole controllers of their lives at that point. As you approach the legal onset of adulthood, keep in mind that your parents have had your best interests at heart for a long time, and that won't stop the day you turn eighteen or the day you graduate from high school. Continue to benefit from their experience and wisdom. True independence will come much more quickly and easily if you do not demand it the first day you're legally entitled to it. Beyond that, you'll grow up all too quickly anyway. Enjoy your youth and relative freedom from serious responsibility for as long as you can.

This final portion of my letter to you isn't closely related to the rest of the message, yet I think it's important that I include it. In a communication with Alexis, you wrote of concerns about the insurance carrier covering both you and your young cousin Maria. You wrote that while it is bothersome that diagnotstic procedures and treatments are denied to you or debated at great length before eventually being provided amidst yards of red tape, it upsets you even more to see a young child with a spinal injury being denied or being provided under heavy protest routine care that falls under the category of a no-brainer. While I share your concern for the well-being of your eight-year-old cousin, I am equally concerned about the headaches and frustrations insurance carrier personnel have given you and your family on a regular basis. YOU ARE ENTITLED TO QUALITY MEDICAL CARE. The fact that your present insurance is provided through a government program should have no bearing whatsoever on the quality of care you receive or on the way hospital personnel treat you while you are receiving or arranging for diagnostic or treatment procedures. You have hard-working parents who are taxpayers, but even if that were not the case, you still shouldn't be made to feel as though you are any less than worthy of the very best in care that current medical research and technology can provide. A society cannot call itself civilized if it fails to take care of the most vulnerable in its population, whch would be its oldest and youngest inhabitants. Such is a sacred obligation of society in general and of the medical profession in particular. It causes me pain to have to claim association by profession with doctors or other workers within the medical community who would treat some patients differently than others by virtue of their insurance carriers.

Enjoy this year, but look forward to much greater years ahead. You and others like you ARE the future, and the world depends upon you.

With fondness, respect, and admiration,
Alexis' PseudoUncle, Dr. Scott