I came across this anecdote in an interview with physician and social scientist Jonathan M. Metzl, whose book, “Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland,” was recently released. The book is about how rural whites came to embrace policies that are quite literally killing them, and this anecdote sums it up nicely:
Trevor is 41 and dying of liver disease. He lives in a low-income housing facility in Tennessee and he doesn’t have health insurance. Had Trevor lived in neighboring Kentucky, he might have topped the list of candidates for expensive medications called polymerase inhibitors, a life-saving liver transplant, or other forms of treatment and support. But Tennessee repeatedly blocked efforts to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
But Trevor is not mad at the state’s elected officials. “Ain’t no way I would ever support Obamacare or sign up for it,” he tells Metzl. “I would rather die.” When Metzl prods him about why he’d choose death over affordable health care, Trevor’s answer is telling. “We don’t need any more government in our lives. And in any case, no way I want my tax dollars paying for Mexicans or welfare queens.”
Trevor got his wish. He died of hepatitis C. That is an attitude that can be neither reasoned with nor compromised with. We have no choice but to defeat it.