Hey all,
I have been a registered lurker for a few years now. I've always enjoyed all the great posts and conversations here on DKos, but what I've found most compelling are the recent entries about the all-too-common personal nightmare that is our broken health care system. I want to propose a way in which we at DKos and the progressive community as a greater whole can help to make the dream of single-payer universal health care a reality.
While some have correctly pointed out that single-payer has been demonized by the right wing as "socialized medicine", it is my firm belief that those stereotypes can be overcome by aggressively educating the general public about the specifics of the concept, so as to not accept the frames of the corporate private insurers; and, even more crucially, by presenting the issue to the public in a way that makes it real and puts a face on the topic.
While there are great groups like Physicians for a National Health Program that are doing their best to promote the specifics of the plan, the challenge of winning over the hearts of the greater population is in our hands. Some of the stories I've read here on DKos are just heart breaking accounts of what it is to struggle with corporate greed in times of illness and even relative health. Any of these stories could totally change someone's perspective on the issue, regardless of whether they have good coverage from work or perfect health or just haven't taken the time to think about how just one bad accident or illness could shatter every single aspect of their lives.
So, I am asking all of you, along with your friends and family, to share in this thread all of the nightmare stories about health care that you feel comfortable sharing. When we've got a lot of stories and a nice narrative of the urgency of this crisis, we can put all the stories together and find somewhere to publish them, whether it be in print or on its own dedicated website. I believe by putting a face on this issue (whether it be someone's mother, grandfather, or child), people will begin to see just how disgustingly manipulated our health care system is now, and how important it is to change it.
Who is with me?