First, no, this is not one of those "kill the bill" posts whatsoever. I'm glad this bill passed and I'm thrilled and energetic about it tonight. This is history and this is a genuinely good step toward universal health care.
I'm writing this because something happened tonight and I think the community should be aware, if only so we can work really hard to push back against it. And it is a sad story. Brace yourselves.
I'm in a wheelchair, I'm a paraplegic. I've had a lot of health problems over the years and spent most of last year in the hospital. Some of you might remember part of my story from the KosAbility post last week. Well, I've got good insurance as long as my parents stay together - because my stepdad works for the railroad. He told her a week or so ago he's getting a divorce.
I'm mostly upset for my mother. He told her this via text after twelve years of marriage. I've been trying to cheer her up and make things better for her and we're all stressing over the insurance thing too. My stepdad will pretty much make sure I'm still on his, even if it means he won't file for a divorce formally. But still we worry. This is a guy who could flip out and be an asshole at any second, since he hates me anyway, and decide not to help us out.
I give you this information as background to the story I have to tell you tonight.
I went over to my mom's house tonight, knowing all of this. We're all on edge and we're all confused and hurt and trying to not only pick up the pieces from this sudden and random development but we're also trying to figure out how to salvage my actual ability to stay alive since I was blessed with so many health problems.
Knowing this, and knowing my family is part of the Glenn Beck crowd, I decided not to mention the vote tonight and I decided not to ask my mom if I could watch the floor debate. Well, my mom decided to bring it up anyway.
She said, "Did you hear how we're all screwed? Government health care is going to pass tonight and taxes will be high and it will take us six months to get treatments if we get cancer."
Knowing that this wasn't just my mother giving me her typical hard time in light of recent events, I wanted to tread lightly. I told her that this isn't socialized medicine and that it is all handled by non profit organizations and you can keep your same health insurance.
She got straight to the point, asking me, "What I want to know is: is my boss going to cancel my health insurance because they don't want to pay higher taxes? Will the railroad cancel your stepdad's insurance? Are we going to be screwed? Will you be able to keep some kind of insurance?"
This makes me feel so sad inside. This is a devastating time for our family right now and the last thing they need is this right-wing misinformation campaign. It is destroying us right now. It's keeping my mom awake at night. It's causing rifts in our family.
I don't know what to do. I want to combat this misinformation. I want to punish the monsters who are doing this to the American people. Scaring them into thinking they'll lose their jobs. Making them think they'll be without insurance and recourse and be forced to pay higher taxes without jobs.
This is seriously something we need to fight back on. Please don't comment in this diary and tell me that my family is crazy and wrong. I know that they are misinformed. I know Glenn Beck is a nutjob. The thing is, we need to look past all of that and we need to see that this right-wing misinformation campaign is hurting people. It is making Americans TERRIFIED of this bill. It is causing an untold amount of stress and worry.
Like it or not, like Fox News or not, people with real worries do exist and they are being lied to constantly and they are scared and horrified. They need to be informed. We need to be helping them out. We need to be eloquently stating our case. Our work is not done, not by a long shot. I'm not saying that we need to be "on the defensive" about this bill. We just need to educate.
This bill has passed except for the reconciliation bill which is going to happen. It's past time to be on the defensive. It's past time to "sell" the bill to Americans. Now is the time to make sure Americans know what they're GETTING. What we've achieved.
Now is the time to make sure they aren't misinformed, frightened and alone.