Monday, February 19, 2007

Elizabeth Edwards on Universal Health Care...

I know some of you have mixed emotions on the topic of Universal Health Care but I just received this email from Elizabeth Edwards that I wanted to point out from a discussion standpoint. She is urging people to write letters to the editor of their local newspapers on this topic and as part of the email shared the letter she wrote to the to the Chapel Hill News:

Dear Editor,

I'm writing to share why I strongly support John Edwards' plan for universal health care, besides the reason that he is my husband.

America has the best health care in the world; we know this because people with complex and intractable problems, the most desperate patients from around the world come to America for treatment. But for too many Americans, that same high quality treatment is not available. Under John's plan, it would be.

John's universal health care plan guarantees every American health care, preserves freedom of choice and shares responsibility among individuals, employers and the government. But these broad principles don't tell the real story. The real story is personal and poignant, the stories of people who do not have health care coverage at all, like a young breast cancer patient I met from Alaska, or the people for whom a pre-existing condition means their coverage doesn't cover their most dire medical needs, like a woman I met in Ohio.

I'm one of the lucky ones. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I had health insurance coverage, and I could afford care. When I found a lump in my breast, I never had to think about whether I could afford treatment. I simply got the treatment I needed. That should be true for every one of us. A nation that prides itself on equality cannot have me getting the best treatment available while a woman I met from Greensboro, N.C. has to depend on the kindness of strangers for her treatment.

It is not just that John's universal health care proposal will make our health care coverage system more efficient - though it will. It is not just that it will boost our economic productivity - though it will. It is not just that people stuck in jobs they do not like because they cannot lose their health insurance will now be free to change jobs or start a business - although they will. It is not even that it will provide pressure to stop the spiraling health care costs - though it does that, too. It is that the lives of the woman in Alaska, and the mother in Ohio, and the Greensboro breast cancer patient will be better.

And that's why I will work hard every day to make sure John's plan becomes a reality. And I hope you'll join me.


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1 comment:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

You know, I began thinking that we could cap the amount of money doctors make, quickly realized that many sports types and entertainers are grossly overpaid, and then caught myself wandering down the path to socialism.

Besides, this America, where we'd rather tax them out of rather than cap it.

Politicians NEED our tax dollars to buy as many votes and voters as possible, and who better to supply their lust for the cash to do it with?

If the politicians let us, especially the wealthy, keep their money, why then they'd spend it, keeping more Merkins working, and that would be a bad thing (leaving the politicos out of the money loop, that is)...

;-)