In 2004, the day after George Bush was re-elected, my life as I knew it ended. I learned the hard lesson that many who sustain a traumatic brain injury learn. TBI survivor, and author of I'll Carry The Fork, Kara Swanson said it best,
"Sometimes when your life ends, you don't actually die."
Why is this issue critically important to this election? Follow me below the fold to find out.
Healthcare has become my highest priority issue in this campaign. For almost four years I have been the witness to the devastation of people's lives when catastrophe strikes. Think it doesn't affect you? Think again. I am fortunate. I had selected short and long term disability insurance and this one choice ended up saving our family home. An auto accident that I should not have survived, forever changed the lives of my family and me.
You are not worried because you have insurance? Think again. In this four year journey I have seen people and events that I wish my damaged short term memory could forget. I have seen young soldiers evicted from treatment and crucial rehabilitation because our current administration believes if you can't see it (a brain injury) it doesn't exist. I have seen a young mother kicked out of treatment because her insurance ran out. She had fought valiantly to re-learn to walk on her own two feet and she needed just a few more crucial weeks. She was taken out in a walker.
You have a one million dollar coverage cap? So did I. That was spent in less than six weeks in the first of three hospitals and rehabilitation facilities where I spent five months. Again, I was fortunate. I qualified for workman's compensation because I was traveling in my job.
I have seen young people shipped to convalescence homes, doomed to a life that offers no parole, and no opportunity for life outside the confines of this hell. Think it won't happen to you or someone you love? Don't worry, John McCain has a plan.
John Goodman, a health care adviser to Sen. John McCain, quoted by the Dallas Morning News said the following:
Anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort..."So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care."
A bicycle wreck, a diving accident, a motorcycle or car wreck, ATV accident, simple fall, sporting accident, war injury, or a drunk driver and life can change. Yes, John McCain has a plan and the quote above shows that it will be even more brutal than the Bush plan.
Think healthcare doesn't affect you? Neither did I as I cast my vote in the last election. The next day my life as I had always known it ended.
This election is critical for so many reasons--Global warming, the economy, the war, national security--but for me it is healthcare. I have seen too many people lose their homes, too many young warriors denied mental rehabilitation needed to give them back their lives. I was thrilled to hear Barack Obama tonight specifically mention mental healthcare for our returning service members. These young men will become our newest generation of homeless veterans if we fail them now.
We MUST win this election, and money alone won't do it. I am probably preaching to the choir, but if you haven't given your time--Please volunteer in some way to ensure we take back our country. The quality of
life you save, may be your own.