Why We Can’t Turn Our Backs on Health Care Reform
Posted March 23rd, 2011 by Senator Jeff MerkleyTwo weeks ago, the House of Representatives voted to go backwards by supporting repeal of the health reform bill that President Obama signed into law nearly a year ago. The new health reform law bars insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, or dropping people from coverage if they get sick. I worked to include a breastfeeding provision in the bill that provides new moms with a private space and flexible unpaid break times at work to pump healthy breast milk for their babies.
It’s important for members of Congress to know how the bill is benefitting millions of working families across America. Over the past several months, MomsRising members have shared their stories about how the new health reform law has changed their lives for the better. Ruthann from Cottage Grove, Oregon, shares her story about how health reform may have saved her life:
“I am 64 years old, one year until eligible for Medicare. I have never had a colonoscopy because I could not afford it. My health insurance policy has a $5,000 deductible / out of pocket before any decent coverage; preventative procedures are prohibitive. The Obama plan encouraged my insurance company to begin covering routine preventative care including a colonoscopy, so I scheduled one as soon as I heard. There were two premalignant polyps that were removed. Colon cancer was prevented at great savings to the system and extension of life for me.”
Deborah from Eugene, Oregon, explains how the health reform law has helped her daughter receive the necessary medical care she needs:
“Health care reform is already helping us by allowing us to keep our young adult daughter on our family health insurance. She is 23 and a college graduate who is employed but does not have health insurance with her employer. What would she do without the new health care reform? She would have no coverage at all. She suffers from a chronic health condition that requires monthly medications – these are prohibitively expensive without health insurance.”
Providing people like Ruthann with preventive health care screenings and giving Deborah’s daughter access to the medicine she needs not only saves our country money over the long run, it saves lives. Is the health care bill perfect? No. Is it a strong step in the right direction? Absolutely. Those in Congress who are dead set on undoing the reforms we put in place would be remiss not to recognize the positive impact the law is having on countless Americans like Ruthann and Deborah.
We can’t turn our backs on working families and go back to the days where insurance companies decide who gets access to health care and who doesn’t. We need to continue to move forward and ensure that health care in America remains an essential right for families, not a privilege.
2 Comments
February 16, 2011 at 4:54 pm by Sheila LumleyOregon and the US in General, needs healthcare reform. I insured my four children when they were growing up,through my employer, on the Kaiser healthplan. Back then, the co-pay was $1 and the services were ran very efficiently. Yesterday, I took my now grown daughter,who is 28,in pre-med, and part time employed, to urgent care since she has no health insurance.The fees for urgent care are very high, the wait is long, and the staff barely competent to diagnose. After a very brief exam, she was directed to go to the nearest hospital for emergency medical treatment of appendicitis.
The nearest facility was St Vincent on Barnes road. The line up at 8PM, was twelve deep, the facility was dirty, lots of male nurses were strollling around talking while one female nurse ran around wildly the whole five hours we were there. There was one gentleman with blood flowing profusely from his nose. He was left for two hours in the waiting room, dripping into a blue bag, gagging, and shaking. My daughter waited three hours in pain, before the nurse who was running around was able to hook up an IV(after numerous tries). Another hour and she was taken to a room, Another hour, then an untrasound revealed an ovarian cyst that had ruptured.
The bed she was sent to occupy, had dirty footprints on it, caked blood on the floor, and a hair on the pillow. My daughter muttered about MRSA before she ditifully lay down on the dirty bed. I say all of this to demonstrate how the quality of care has eroded. I work in procurement for a manufacturing facility and I contract for the janitorial staff. OUt factory floors are much cleaner than the energency room floors at this hospital. Can’t the health care facility at least get their janitors to clean the floors?
All these problems, understaffed, undertrained, filthy facility, and still the cost is astronomical and climbing?
As to the emergency room, why don’t they open some day clinics so they won’t be required to treat people like cattle when they come in the middle of the night? And for pete’s sake, Oregon has a job shortage, why not train more nurses(you know the kind that can administer care?)
I was and am appalled.
If my daughter had had a ruptured appendix, five hours of agony could have resulted in death or a very long recovery. All totaled, this one medical event took eight hours and probably cost $10,000
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January 31, 2011 at 4:56 pm by Wellescent Wellness BoardsIt is very unfortunate that the Republican leadership is so focused on repealing the ACA at the detriment of preventative service delivery and the both human and financial savings that can result. Purely market-driven health systems without the appropriate regulation will fail to deliver preventative services as insurers will continue to deny coverage of these “unnecessary” medical tests.
Unfortunately, with today’s ruling in Florida indicating that the ACA is unconstitutional, the fight continues to be made more difficult. Add to this the defunding exercises of the Republicans and the bill has some difficult times ahead of it. So do those among us who aren’t in perfect health or become sick.
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