Daniel Jimenez lost his father to cancer a few years ago. According to Mr. Jimenez his father had a job but did not have health insurance, and did not go to the doctor until it was too late. With “intellectual” Paul Ryan, the turtle turned weasel Mitch McConnell, and unpopular President Donald Trump working diligently to take away millions of peoples’ health insurance, Jimenez has started a change.org petition.
A lot of Members of Congress promote choice as an American value, which is all the more reason for them to have to continue to choose their own health coverage from the free marketplace. If private health care is good for the American citizen, it should also be good for the people that defend it.
If Congress is willing to drastically cut healthcare subsidies for most people, are they willing to have the same rules apply to them and their families?
As of this diary, Jimenez’s petition has 352,099 signatures. Jimenez says the responses he’s gotten shows that people from both sides of the aisle seem to agree—Congress should stop being such blatant hypocrites.
Over email, Jimenez told us that the response to his petition, which has garnered over 300,000 signatures in a week "has been amazing."
"There are also some really sad and scary comments about people needing health insurance because of pre-existing conditions and are fearing for their lives if they lose their health care plan," he said. "An interesting fact is that people from both side of the political spectrum seem to agree with me about Congress not receiving any special treatment that regular people do not have."
If the petition receives 500,000 signatures, it will be delivered to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump.
Asked if he thinks a petition of 500,000 signatures might get Congress to give up their subsidies Jimenez says that even if he had 5 million signatures nobody in their right mind would be willing to give up subsidies when the cost of health insurance continues to rise. Exactly, and Congress has no plan for that.