This is one of the best exchanges in the article.
..........I have been advised to sidestep the gory stuff, but here we go. ''Senator, if you need a urinary catheter inserted every time you need to go, say three to six times per day, that becomes a routine procedure -- for you.''
I sit so low, I can see, under their table, all of the senators crossing their legs. I have their attention.
They question me about procedures involving tubes, needles, rubber-gloved fingers, orifices natural and man-made. I won't flinch. Never mind that Grandmother would consider all of this indelicate. ''We know how to do them. And all these procedures are commonly done by unpaid family members. That's entirely legal, and the nurses don't mind. The nursing law isn't about safety and professional qualifications. It's about who can get paid.''
One senator is a fundamentalist-Christian Republican, the kind who says that the anti-sodomy laws should be strengthened and enforced. ''Ms. Johnson, you've explained why this bill won't put people at greater risk, but I don't understand why you care enough to travel from Charleston to push for it.
''Two reasons, Senator. One is, changing the law will free up resources to meet needs that aren't being met now. With this change, we can push third-party payers like Medicaid to fund more options, make the money go further. Home care in the aggregate costs less than locking people up.
''The other is simpler. I want the legal right to say who comes in my bedroom and who sees me naked -- same as you do, Senator!''
Redness rises from the senator's tie and washes up his face. Once we have him blushing, the others fall in line. The favorable vote is unanimous...........
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