President Obama's Health Care Plan

If you are reading this article, you are hopefully not expecting an unbiased review of President Obama's health care plan proposal. I confess my knowledge of President Obama's proposal does not come from watching it on television, therefore I did not claim an assignment that would have assured me some money upfront in writing this article. Because I did not claim the assignment in that way, I am presenting this as my views on what President Obama said that I read based on summaries of what he proposes to introduce to Congress.

Let us begin by examining the reasons some people do not have health insurance coverage. For some, the choice is an unawareness of a serious illness or accident happening to them. I have many family members who opt out of health insurance simply because they have experienced many years of good health and cannot foresee a point in their lives when that would change. If you have read any of my articles at all, you know I have never had this delusion. At age nine, all belief that I could live life without health insurance was shattered when I was diagnosed with ovarian dysgerminoma. My father did not keep Cobra insurance when he was fired from his job and I therefore fell into the category of uninsurable.

Wait a second you may be saying---you were nine years old then and are now much older than nineteen. Unless the cancer came back within the past few years, you should be ten years in remission and free to be insured by insurance companies. Due to problems in addition to the cancer, a relapse, and a 2008 breast cancer diagnosis, I am not free to be insured by insurance companies. For a brief period of time in the early 2000's we searched for a company to insure me and were turned down each time due to pre-existing problems outside of the cancer but that were caused by the cancer nonetheless.

So how does President Obama's healthcare plan affect me? Hopefully it will make it possible for me to find health insurance coverage without being discriminated against due to something that is not my fault. I was nine years old when I was diagnosed with cancer. I did not smoke, I did not drink, I did not do as much as consume caffeine-even chocolate. My problem occurred when I was conceived and I fell through the cracks in regard to medical coverage. Do my two small children deserve to lose their mother because she cannot be treated for what needs to be treated in an effort to survive?

There were four main points to President Obama's proposal today and I have discussed the one most relevant to my own life. The other three were that President Obama's proposal would provide for no government run insurance plan to compete with the private sector. This is an important part of the proposal as well. Insurance companies are a vital part of America's economy and would not need the competition.

Another point to President Obama's proposal today is health insurance exchanges would be created at a state level to encourage competition. I am unsure of what this part of the proposal means and will not pretend to know. I only know my cited source says Republicans are not keen on this part of President Obama's proposal.

The fourth point is an important one and that is all Americans would be required to have health care insurance. People have and can argue with me about this until they are blue in the face and my mind will not change. There is not a soul out there who expects a chronic illness or accident to knock them down. It is a part of the human condition-knowing death will one day happen but no one thinks about chronic illnesses or accidents that may not kill them but cause them to rely on health care more readily. It is inevitable that all people will need health care at some point in their lives but for the young who have never needed it before it is entirely too easy to go without it.

Health care seems like a luxury item to them-a vague thing needed only if something goes badly. Why should something go badly if you do not believe it will go badly? It is the naiveté of the age. I have seen family members let their medical insurance slip only to find out they are pregnant two months later or they have a condition their insurance would have paid for if they had not allowed it to lapse. No, it is not our responsibility to care for the ignorance of others except when that ignorance costs our country an astronomical amount of money each year.

I recognize health care views are split down party lines. Most of my views are actually conservative in nature. I am pro-life and socially conservative. I am also fiscally conservative to a point. I am not conservative by any stretch of the imagination when it comes to health care. As a Christian, it is our responsibility to realize it is not a survival of the fittest world. Some of the most amazing accomplishments have come from those whose health has been less than ideal. For someone who is uninsurable and has been for almost her entire life, hearing others say health insurance is not a fundamental right is a slap in the face.

I am tired of defending myself for my views. With no doubt in my mind, were another person to walk in these shoes their minds would be changed in how health care should be viewed. My brother's best friend lost his life to cancer because he did not have the money to go to the doctor to be examined until it was too late. His friend was mentally handicapped but not to the point of being able to be on Medicaid. People are dying because they do not have medical access. How does President Obama's proposal affect me? It gives me hope that fewer of my friends will die due to not being treated for illnesses that could be cured if they are caught in time. President Obama's proposal, if it went through Congress, would give me more confidence that my children's medical needs will be met if they do, in fact, have Cowden Syndrome as I do.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/president-obamas-health-care-plan-post-today-ahead/story?id=9904935

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/summary-presidents-proposal.pdf