By Betty Johnson
Gazette-Times (Corvallis, Ore.), Letters, Sept. 19, 2013
Members of Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates posed this question to area residents at the celebration of Medicare’s 48th birthday party at Riverfront Park this summer: How would your life be different if we had Medicare for all?
Here are some of the thoughtful answers which area residents wrote on notes which they attached to the writer’s wall:
“My granddaughter would not be bankrupt and uninsurable at age 30.”
“I would no longer lay awake every night in abject terror of my future.”
“I’d feel that things were fairer.”
“My husband could take a job that would let him come home every night.”
“As a physician, I would stop worrying about all the people I know who are needlessly suffering with untreated illness.”
“My wife would be covered, and I could retire.”
“My 29-year-old daughter, who is fighting cancer, would not be bankrupt … and I would not, in covering her co-pays, be headed toward bankruptcy.”
“I’d start a business.”
“My friends, family and I could replace our glasses.”
“As a healthcare provider, I could make decisions based on clinical factors, not an individual’s financial (insurance) situation.”
“I’d be living in a country that reflects a sense of community and caring and I would no longer be embarrassed to be an American.”
And the last response sums it up … for me and, I hope, for you … “Health Care for all is the way it should be. Why is it taking us so long?”
Betty Johnson resides in Corvallis.
http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-what-if-medicare-covered-everybody-s-medical-care/article_b71dac94-2107-11e3-a31b-0019bb2963f4.html