Don't Get Cocky about HCR Passing - by Steven D

[kpete]

Don't Get Cocky about HCR Passing

by Steven D
Mon Mar 22nd, 2010 at 09:06:33 AM EST

I was very ill yesterday with a flare up of my auto-immune disorder and spent most of the day in bed. Then last night my wife was taken to the emergency room with chest pain and a fever where it was discovered that she has bronchitis. So I guess I missed all the hullabaloo about the HCR bill passing.

......................

It's funny because yesterday while in bed a I received a call from a friend in Canada about the difference in their system versus ours. We discussed a mutual friend in the US with the same severe medical condition from which she suffers (I am withholding info about the specific illness out of respect for their privacy).

Our mutual American friend is uninsured and cannot afford the latest medications for his condition. Instead he must either take decades old generic medications because they are cheaper and the only ones he can afford. These meds have severe and permanently debilitating side effects that are well known. However, without insurance that is all he has available to him. He can take them or choose to forego this grossly inadequate treatment for his condition. He has chosen the latter course and takes no medications rather than risk further damage to his body.

She on the other hand is prescribed the latest medications for the very same chronic illness which are much better and safer. Under the Canadian health care system she incurs no extra cost for receiving the best available medication for her illness.

So celebrate the HCR reform bill, but remember this: we have a very long way to go before we in this country are guaranteed the same level of health care for all that exists in other developed nations. ...................

the rest:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/3/22/9633/56327

[still_one]

1. Absolutely, in addition, the Democrats MUST go on the offensive from here on out

and must NOT let their guard down, because the current crop of repukes in Congress cannot be trusted

[jtrockville]

2. I view the passage of this bill as a line in the sand.

It's the point at which we've decided to address the problems with health care in these United States. We have lots of work to do if we want to get it right.