To Those Who Oppose Health Care Reform

I want you to know why I support Health Care Reform

I have a friend, who has worked her entire life to be successful and have the American Dream. She is married, has two beautiful children. Her and her husband have respectable jobs and work 50+ hours a week. A few years ago they were planning their vacation, when their youngest child didn't want to go to school because he "hurt". After tests, they discovered he had childhood leukemia. Fast forward three years. I am at lunch with said friend catching up with her, trying to take her mind off of her daily troubles and the known, but never discussed constant gloom wondering if she will lose her son. During lunch, she gets a phone call and excuses herself, later to come back to lunch on the brink of tears saying "well they can try but I have nothing for them to get" - she was being sued over medical bills she couldn't pay because some treatment wasn't covered under the insurance company - the treatment that was contributing to saving her sons life. We also learned that her house was days away from foreclosure.

What did she do to be in this situation? How could this have happened to her? She did everything she was supposed to do, how could this be? Why does she have to chose between her home and her sons treatment? Why on top of everything else does she have to worry about being sued when she should just be focused on taking care of her family?

Someone who opposes health care reform, explain this to me. Explain to me how this could be different if it happened to me, or to you.

I want you to know why I support Health Care Reform

I have a friend, who has spent his days working towards the American Dream - owning his own business. I didn't know him before he started his own business, but I have known him for years. He is a good man, and when I say good - I mean that with 100% conviction. He has a level head on his shoulders, performs work for charity, and elevates his friends in helping them to achieve their dreams. My friend is in constant pain from a slipped disk in his back. He is in his mid-thirty's and sometimes is forced to use a cane to walk around. There are days he can not make it in to work because he literally can not get out of bed because he is in an exorbitant amount of pain. When he does come to work, he is very careful with his walk and is slow to move about. He does not move like a thirty-something. When I've asked him why he doesn't go get it fixed, he says to me he can't afford the surgery. Mind you, he has been to the doctor's - they have treated him with cortizone shots, etc. and they tell him he needs surgery. But if he has the surgery which he can not afford, than he also can not do the work that pays for his business.

For those of you who oppose Health Care Reform, please tell me what did he do wrong? Explain to me how this can be different for me or you should we have this situation?

I want you to know why I support Health Care Reform.

I have a friend who is self employed. He actually works three or four different jobs and does so, so that he can pursue his life-long dreams and ambition in music. When he was 11 years old he became sick and was put in the hospital, they later determined that he had Type 1 Diabetes. For those of you who don't know the difference, Type 1 Diabetes is when your body just does not produce insulin. It wasn't his diet, he wasn't obese - his body just didn't produce insulin. Type 2 is brought on because of a persons diet and exercise, or lack thereof. Because he has had diabetes, insurance companies consider this a "pre-existing" condition and IF they were to carry him, he month insurance premium would have been around $700 a month. I think that is a lot of money, and would assume most people would as well.

I ask you again, for those of you who oppose Health Care Reform, please tell me what did he do wrong? Explain this to me.

I want you to know why I support Health Care Reform.

I have a friend, more like a family member. Who's husband died and he was the sole provider. He provided her income and the means to meet her health insurance needs. He died and now she is left to her fixed means of income. She is 75. She now goes to a free clinic to seek health care. In this free clinic she is just one number in many, she is not a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother or a friend. She is just one number. When she goes to get her medication filled, it is not $5.00 it is $100s of dollars for a months worth of medication. Her medication often costs her $300-400 a month. Again, she is on a fixed income. How does this happen? Why does this happen? She and her husband lived to do what is right for their family. They extended their gratitude beyond their family to impact, for the better, lives of others. And now, should something happen to her, she would be treated in a less than optimal hospital, having to share her room with many, and be treated again as one in a million, vs. the one who needs critical attention.

I ask again, no...this time I beg those who oppose Health Care Reform, what did she do wrong?

As for myself. I am gainfully employed. I work 45-50 hours a week, if not more. I have my own home, I pay a premium for health insurance. I am accident prone. The bill for my injuries in 2008 topped out around $3000.00 out of pocket expenses. This is on top of the $200 I pay each month for health insurance. This year, I pay about $250 a month for health insurance, but I hesitate to go to the doctor. I have recently been sick and the expense has cost me well over $100.00, and that was just the flu. Thankfully, I am employed and I am getting paid while I rest up to go back to work healthy. But what if, what if I didn't have the $100.00 or I was self-employed. What if I didn't have just the flu but something more serious? How much would it cost me to be ill? Why should I be worried about expenses while I am ill?

I guess I am a socialist. Maybe a communist. Maybe a traitor to my country. I feel like I am an American and proud of it. But according to those who Oppose Health Care Reform, I am a socialist on my way to communist and I should put myself in the category of a Hitler supporter.

Someone, please explain this to me.