Tammy Alexander wrote on the personal impact of health care reform in a PeaceSigns article, sharing about her sister’s experiences with a chronic condition and reflecting how health care reform may affect the lives and concerns of millions of people.
I spoke with my sister recently to get her thoughts on health care reform. She is not a health care provider. She doesn’t work for an insurance company or a pharmaceutical manufacturer. No one would consider her an ‘expert’ on health care policy. However, she knows more about how the health care system actually works than anyone else I know.
My sister raised several concerns about the reforms being bandied about in the news–concerns I hear echoed by many others. If there were an individual mandate, requiring everyone to have health insurance, how would she afford the premiums? Would her premiums be higher due to her preexisting illness? Would the bureaucracy for getting subsidized health insurance be as problematic for her as wading through the Medicare morass?
The decisions made in the next few months will affect millions of people, many of whom will not have a voice in the debate. Let’s make sure that policymakers hear the voices of everyone who has a stake in the process–and not just those who stand to profit from it.
The full article is available at PeaceSigns.
