Hello. I am Hissy Fit Jones.

As a cat who started life homeless, I have a certain affinity for my fellow cats and dogs who do not have a home where they are cared for and loved.

Things are better for us animals than they used to be. Back in the day, 12-20 million of us were killed because….. well, just because nobody wanted us.

Today far fewer of us are euthanized, thanks to a push to curtail indiscriminate breeding, spay/neuter programs, and humans seeing rescuing animals as a sign of social status.

Health care for us has improved greatly too. We live longer, and we’re not euthanized just because we get sick. Thanks to health insurance, we can access health care that otherwise would be cost-prohibitive for our humans.

Yeah, things are looking much better for us.

For you humans, though? Not so much. 

You see, you think because you’re on Medicare or have employer-provided health insurance the GOP bill to repeal and replace Obamacare won’t affect you.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

For you Medicare recipients, you can expect your free preventive care services (such as screenings) to no longer be free. If you go to see your doctor or are hospitalized, expect to pay more out of pocket.

Of course, if you’re one of those lucky fools who is well off AND gets cheap Medicare insurance, you’re going to rack up…. at the expense of children, the disabled, and those with catastrophic illnesses. Not that you seem to care.

If you have employer-provided insurance, the extent of your coverage may change. ACA set minimum requirements for health insurance policies. You may no longer have coverage for mental health care, maternity care, or life-saving drugs. States can waive the requirement to cover pre-existing conditions. Older adults like Jen can legally be charged more- a lot more- for insurance. Of course, there’s no requirement that she carry insurance, and if her employer coverage goes up much more, she may have to forgo it.

One place where we are on equal footing is the inequity of health care. Many Americans do not believe health care is a right, but a privilege. It’s yet another way they can separate themselves into the Us vs. Them categories. They’re like little kids whining because their sibling got a bigger cookie.

Thanks to Youcaring and other such sites, people can raise funds to offset the cost of their health care. They can also raise funds to pay for health care for their pets. We hear about the campaigns that are successful, but only one in ten campaigns reach their goal. It’s now to the point where humans and animals are competing for donations to cover health care costs. Who knew the day would come that animals could be considered more worthy of health care than humans? 

In the US today, the loudest, most obnoxious voices are the ones getting the most attention. People whose sole skill is self-promotion are valued, while humans who do the right thing- get an education, work and support their families, support their community and vote regularly- get little to no attention. Cat videos rule the internet.

So we know what humans care about, and it’s certainly not about themselves or each other.