The Great Duping Of America | The Source Weekly - Bend

The Great Duping Of America

Letter to the editor

It was a gut-wrenching experience the moment health care reform became doomed with the special election in Massachusetts. A democratically elected President of far too much personal integrity was asked to do what the GOP would not hesitate to do in his position - use the last remaining days of party majority to advance a controversial political agenda, in this case health- care reform. This writer knows far too well the consequences of the outcome; I've been living for several years with major health issues that are excluded under current law as pre-existing conditions. I had been waiting, hoping, praying for reform to come into effect so that I might be able to seek out the health care I desperately need and cannot afford.

Our nation, the only developed society worldwide that doesn't guarantee universal health care in some form to its citizens, on the brink of implementing the start of such coverage has failed to do so. But this letter is not just about me; it's about a family member or friend, or co-worker, or congregation member whom you know - regardless of political persuasion - who find themselves in the same position. How can this be right? We allow those who are sick to live at risk until a minor illness becomes a major illness, or a major illness becomes terminal due to lack of proper care. Our nation has available the world's most advanced medical technologies, yet it prevents its citizens from accessing that care when it's not profitable to do so.

This practice is unconscionable - as much as the party politics our elected officials function upon when they vote to advance personal or political agendas over the needs of the very citizens they are charged with serving. How is it that these elected officials have forgotten the one true thing that unites us all: our humanity. Can these politicians look anyone in the eye who's in need of health care but cannot afford it and tell them that they are voting against reform because you, sir, you, young woman, or you, child, in your ignorance, don't realize that you're better off without the care you need?