Why we need healthcare reform

Those of you who already read Dawn’s blog have seen this, so please bear with me. However, I think that this story needs to be circulated around just like all those lovely emails that have blazed through the country spreading lies about a certain candidate. Instead of spending bandwidth on that drivel, how about we all start talking about this?

First, go to The Journey and read that post that I’ve linked. If you don’t take the time to read the whole thing, just look at those pictures. Look at that adorable little girl. Then please, really do read it. Because as of this month that family’s options were exhausted and that beautiful girl is without proper insurance to cover her ongoing medical needs. For a summary of everything, check out her post on MOMocrats from last month. I’ll summarize really quickly here:

• Existing insurance phases out part of policy that covers the specialized treatments her daughter needs – financial considerations of course!
• Husband’s employer offers a group plan but it has lousy coverage.
• Existence of group plan disqualifies them for consideration from High Risk Pool.
• Daughter now labeled with pre-existing condition cannot qualify for other coverages no matter how expensive anyway – that damn bottom line again!
• One last option is for her husband to request a pay cut so that the family qualifies for the SCHIP. Recent vetoes of the bill as submitted create this scenario because the new bills would have raised the income level limit up to where they are right now.

You can read the rest at those links to see where they stand now, but let’s just go over this shall we? A young family with small children. Father employed, mother staying home with kids. They are insured. Until the insurance company decides to drop coverage of certain high cost therapies and medications. So now they slip through the cracks into the realm of the uninsured. They have to choose between basic living expenses such as housing and food over medical treatments. And we call ourselves a civilized nation?!!!

Please, vote for a candidate who will take care of people like this!