Barack Obama, Please Stay Home--Healthcare Reform is Dying To Hear From You

By Terry J. Leach, R.N. Esq.

Barack Obama, welcome home. Now, please stay home. We need your undivided attention, and brilliance. We need your ability to connect with the American people. We need your wisdom to elevate the parochial concerns of lawmakers facing re-election next year, to craft something many American presidents have tried to do, without success.


Those of you with insurance who think you don’t have a dog in this fight: Listen up. Your health care costs are rising three times faster than your wages for a reason. For every 1% uptick in the unemployment rate, approximately 1 million Americans stand to lose their health insurance. Uninsured folks still receive medical care; only it’s expensive care, typically provided in the emergency department, when the problem is more extensive, and therefore, more expensive, than it should have been. Those of you with healthcare insurance---you and your employers are footing this bill through cost-shifting so you need to care, because employers are facing tough decisions: Get rid of your job or your health insurance, or raise your out-of-pocket costs…again. Or all of the above. You need to pay attention to what’s being hawked by insurance companies and, unfortunately, some lawmakers who cannot, or will not take the time to get into the weeds as proposals are coming out of Congress that could further segment the urban poor from everyone else. Continued...

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