This is my column for the Spectrum Writers Group published on July 10, 2012
On July 28 I awaited the Supreme Court’s historic decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), hopefully but with low expectations. I felt a surprisingly strong upwelling of emotion as the Court affirmed the constitutionality of the law. The decision was obviously a legal victory in our century long struggle to expand reasonable access to health care to all citizens.
But my personal question remained: Why did I feel so strongly about this issue?
Although born during the depths of the Great Depression into a family in abject poverty I have been blessed in this great nation with a long productive life including many opportunities for learning, some more painful than others. My large family reflects the diversity of our nation filling my heart with gratitude.
My life experiences and the needs of my family have driven my commitment to the expansion of universal health care. More than twenty years ago my 28-year career ended prematurely when my company went into bankruptcy. Among the more serious losses was health care insurance for my wife and myself. We joined the ranks of the uninsured for a period of time. The prices we paid for healthcare services greatly exceeded those charged to insurance companies. We had little bargaining power in the health care “free market.”
At the time one colleague didn’t have a choice. His wife was fighting for her life against cancer. They had to pay the exorbitant premiums demanded by the insurance company.
Another member of my family has had a preexisting condition since adolescence and he is uninsurable in the private market. The need to work for a large company with a group policy that would accept him influenced his career choices thus foreclosing more life enriching and creative opportunities.
I cringe when opponents of health care reform deny that the 30 million uninsured who will be covered when the ACA is fully implemented are not our concern, or insist that after the election they will repeal the law and pull the reforms up by their roots returning us to the status quo. To them the uninsured are an abstract group lacking human feelings and needs. To me the 30 million include vulnerable individuals, members of families who will pay a potentially tragic price for our nation’s unwillingness to provide a basic human right, reasonable health care.
The well-financed opponents of reform misinform the public with claims about death panels, the addition of 16,500 IRS enforcement agents, that ours is the best health care system in the world, and much more. Public polling then validates the opinions propagated by the misinformation.
The ball is in the Democratic Party’s court. The Party needs to find its voice and demonstrate political courage by effectively articulating the reasons for continuing the reform of our heath care non-system.
We the people have an opportunity in November to affirm that we are an exceptional nation that cares for its citizens.
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