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#Health Care Reform was More Than Economics.

This was a momentous week.  A week we should all give thanks that Health Care Reform became law.  I know there were and are many who are scared of Health Care Reform–they are scared of the numbers of the finances of it.  But I am more scared by the more than 30 million Americans who had no insurance at all who will now be able to find coverage. 

I know what it is like to be denied coverage. 

For more than 20 years I have facilitated a HIV positive support group.  I have seen first hand the effects of living with a chronic illness.  So many of my friends haven’t been able to qualify for health care coverage.  The stress of living with this kind of disease without good health care insurance or any insurance can kill you.  Literally.  The worry and the fear not only of getting sick but of getting sick without any insurance is devastating.

President Obama and the Democratic leadership of the House should be applauded and thanked.  This was a moral issue.

Are there parts of the health care package that was passed that I don’t agree with? Absolutely.  I believe that there should be federal funding for abortion.  The right-wing whether Democratic or Republican should be ashamed that they have created a culture that denies health care to women. I am sure that if men got pregnant, abortion rights would be sacred!

But to continue to leave so many Americans without coverage was a worse sin.  

I am baffled that the Republican talking points and talking heads continue to want to repeal this important piece of legislation.  I guess they want to continue to sell the American public to corporate interests.  (They certainly did when they revised the bankruptcy laws in this country under President Bush as did the right-wing leaning members of the Supreme Court who blessed unchecked corporate giving during elections.)

But I am proud to be an American this week when justice is renewed in our country by giving help and access to healthcare for more and more Americans. 

Health Care Reform was more than economics.  It was and will continue to be a moral issue.