Dear friends,
Enough with the bitching about health care. Enough with the recycled talking points from the millionaire cable news anchors about how health care reform will ruin blue-collar America. Enough with the prayers asking God to help keep the bill from passing. To publicly ask God to deny health care to those who cannot afford it is a slap in the face to those of us who have experienced the devastating effects of a broken health care system firsthand.
I don't talk about it much, but my family had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical bills due to our insurance company declining coverage for my mother's cancer treatments. To pay the debt after she died, we sold the house I grew up in, our cars, and then my 75 year old grandmother and single father were left to assume the rest.
My sister and I would also be more than happy to tell any of you about how it feels to see your family's picture posted on the side of an old coffee can at any given convenience store in town, with a message about how much "your spare change can help this family."
We had insurance. We paid our bills. We didn't think it could happen to us.
If I prayed, you better believe that I'd spend that time praying that what happened to my family would never happen to yours.
Affordable and accessible health care is a human right. Give this thing a chance.
Darwin
(The attached article ran in the Wilmington Star News on Tuesday, January 12, 1995, the day after mom's death. I still have a donation can and some invitations to benefit events held for our family. I keep them as a reminder of the mortifying lengths we had to go to to survive, at no fault of our own)
Enough with the bitching about health care. Enough with the recycled talking points from the millionaire cable news anchors about how health care reform will ruin blue-collar America. Enough with the prayers asking God to help keep the bill from passing. To publicly ask God to deny health care to those who cannot afford it is a slap in the face to those of us who have experienced the devastating effects of a broken health care system firsthand.
I don't talk about it much, but my family had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical bills due to our insurance company declining coverage for my mother's cancer treatments. To pay the debt after she died, we sold the house I grew up in, our cars, and then my 75 year old grandmother and single father were left to assume the rest.
My sister and I would also be more than happy to tell any of you about how it feels to see your family's picture posted on the side of an old coffee can at any given convenience store in town, with a message about how much "your spare change can help this family."
We had insurance. We paid our bills. We didn't think it could happen to us.
If I prayed, you better believe that I'd spend that time praying that what happened to my family would never happen to yours.
Affordable and accessible health care is a human right. Give this thing a chance.
Darwin
(The attached article ran in the Wilmington Star News on Tuesday, January 12, 1995, the day after mom's death. I still have a donation can and some invitations to benefit events held for our family. I keep them as a reminder of the mortifying lengths we had to go to to survive, at no fault of our own)
4 comments:
I agree totally. I read the bill and I think it's beneficial for me. I'm not making over 250 thousand. I mean....I wished (don't get me wrong, ahah), but in saying that, the extra taxes won't affect me. There are pros and cons, but I see way more pros than cons. This message has been approved by.....ahahah
I had a horrible time last year and we had insurance. We had to pay enormous amounts because of the co-insurance and everything. I hope that maybe the draining of good peoples money will end!
I don't understand why people are fighting this thing....It seems that it is there to help not to hurt.
Thanks for sharing this. So many people with employer-paid insurance have no clue what those of us without it go through. We are lucky enough that we can afford private insurance, but the deductibles are high and I worry we could be dropped at any point. I know too many people that cannot afford private insurance due to pre-exisiting conditions that drive their rates way up. This bill will be lifesaver to many, and it hurts me to know so many people can be so vehemently against something they don't even truly understand.
I normally don't voice my political opinion because I want to keep ALL my friends. Thank you for posting this. I hope people will read it and realize that it CAN happen to people we know and it could happen to them. I think we're moving in the right direction. People need to give it a chance. Republicans had 8 years to address it and chose not to.
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