Here's what appeared in the paper yesterday:
Reform insurance; add new option
In 2000, at the age of 21, I had a rare form of ovarian cancer. I was incredibly fortunate to overcome the disease in good health and without debt. At the time I had health insurance through my parents’ employer, and the bills were minimal. Without that coverage, I would now be in debt $50,000, or, worse, I would have been denied care, and I would not have survived.
Aside from the cancer, I have no health problems. But now, nine years later, fully recovered and with less than a 1 percent chance of the cancer returning, I am virtually uninsurable. I am lucky to have insurance through my husband’s employer, but so many other Americans do not have this option. Healthy people like me are denied coverage and the medical care they need because they are a financial liability to the insurance companies.
Our system is not set up to make health care affordable and accessible. It is not set up to promote prevention or early intervention. It is not set up to offer the greatest care to the greatest number of people. It is, instead, set up to profit insurance companies.
President Obama’s plan for health care reform will make it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, to drop coverage for members when they become sick, or to cap the amount of coverage they can receive. For myself and my fellow Americans, I desperately want these changes.
Additionally, I want a public option. I want to walk into a doctor’s office and receive care without worrying about the out of pocket expenses. I want, and I trust, the government to manage my health care. They do a great job with our public schools, our military, our policemen and firefighters, our mail. Their intervention will enable every American to receive the medical attention they need and deserve.
America has the best medical schools in the world, the best doctors and nurses, and the most cutting-edge technology in medicine. Let’s give our people access to these wonderful resources. They are dying without it.
Anna Sullivan
Charlottesville, VA
Interestingly, here's the headline that made today's front page: ‘Hands Off My Healthcare’ tour makes local stop
This article honored the 50 some people that attended a rally held in Charlottesville yesterday to oppose Obama's health care reform plan:
"Many in attendance Wednesday held signs and cheered as speakers talked about their concerns over health care reform. Ginger Kohr, who brought her daughter to the rally, said she was concerned what the plan will do for her daughter’s future. '[With the national debt] she is not going to have the same standard of living that we have now and that bothers me,' Kohr said."
Well, Ginger, I sure hope your little girl doesn't get sick between now and her debt-free adulthood.
In England, France, Canada, and just about every other educated nation in the world, you can go to the doctor's office, receive timely and thorough care, and walk out without paying a dime. Yes, their taxes are higher, but they are healthier, they live longer, and they don't go bankrupt for having cancer, giving birth, or getting in a car wreck.
Maybe we should talk about spending what we pay in taxes now on health care instead of wars, but that's another letter.
1 comment:
WORD! Way to go Anna Bird, keep on telling it like it is!
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