Byline: Fabu
There is an African proverb which maintains that a nation is built from each family. My family and each family in the United States need quality health care to build a healthy nation.
When I examine my extended family, there is one member who was laid off from work at the beginning of 2009, and until President Obama subsidized insurance premiums, he was asked to pay almost $1,000 a month out of an unemployment check that was less than $1,500 a month. That meant making a decision to pay for health insurance or have a place to live or food to eat. Thankfully the subsidy, which ends in two months, lowered the premium payment by $600.
Another family member was told in advance that she would be laid off from work. She purchased several months of health insurance for herself and her child thinking that surely she would have a job in six months. It has been a year and still no job after countless applications and interviews, therefore no health insurance either. Southern states don't have BadgerCare.
Yet another family member lives on a pension that never increases but her health care premiums and co-pays increase every year. There is a younger family member who wants to work for a nonprofit organization but it doesn't entirely cover her health insurance premium and requires her to pay full price if she wants her uninsured husband under her plan.
Finally, our family has a university student who dropped out to earn money, but the job doesn't include health insurance and he is too old to be covered by his parents. He hasn't had health care services in two years.
Tragically, one of his co-workers in a similar situation died. She was also a student working her way through the university without health insurance. She died from a medical condition that could have been easily remedied. While she kept going to a local hospital, she was continually sent home while her pain increased. When she was desperately ill and hospitalized, the blood infection was discovered but it was too late. She died in her 20s this year in Madison.
These folks are all hardworking people whose lives are bound up in inferior health care options.
Is my family the only one with poor health care? We all know the answer is that most U.S. families, regardless of race or economic status, are suffering from the lack of access to high-quality health care. There are growing numbers of uninsured Americans and for those fortunate enough to have health insurance, there are inadequate, short hospital stays, denied coverage for certain illnesses and caps on the amounts of coverage.
It is personal for me when a family friend with breast cancer had her breast removed, then was sent home, far too soon, with tubes, drainages, bandages and medications to be changed, monitored and given out on a rigid schedule.
Poor health care in our country is no longer a question for the imaginary 'those' people -- it affects all of us. The idea that President Barack Obama is facing a tough fight to get improved health care is horrifying. We as a nation need better health care, especially in the area of preventative care. We need expanded coverage, lower co-pays, more patient choices, and better customer care from health insurance companies and pharmaceutical firms.
I have to believe that the same groundswell of caring people that elected Obama will keep pushing until high-quality health care is available for all who live in these United States. I've taken to including improved health care in my prayers; it is such a critical need for each family. Can't we wholeheartedly support the president and legislators who understand that healthy families make for a healthy nation? We want and need national health care reform that is a public plan.
Fabu is Madison's poet laureate and a consultant in African-American culture and arts. She writes a monthly column for The Capital Times. www.artistfabu.com Fabu - 8/29/2009 7:02 am
