Putting a human face on health care reform
I just received the following statement from Gary Stein after my recent column on his wife, Monique Zimmerman Stein & her battle with Stickler’s Syndrome. I am grateful to them for having the courage to come forward and put a human face on absolute necessity for health care reform in this country. Unfortunately the faces I have seen in the news have predominantly been very angry people with cries of socialism, communism, etc who want to strike fear in the hearts of all.
If you would like to be a part of the solution and assist the Steins in their struggle, you may contact them at:
Monique Zimmerman-Stein
P.O. Box 7506
Wesley Chapel, FL
33545
On behalf of my wife, Monique Zimmerman-Stein, and our children, I would like to express our deepest gratitude for the outpouring of support, encouragement and empathy for our health and financial situation. Many of your comments have been very understanding and some have been a bit perplexing. One writer wondered why we had a canvas Disney bag (my 22-year old daughter works there) and why we bought such expensive foods as lemons (far better nutrition than a cost-comparable candy bar, and makes several glasses of lemon-water!). Trying to pay for healthcare shouldn’t dictate how we live. Access to healthcare should improve the quality of our lives.
We were hesitant about coming forward with our story. We value our privacy, as does nearly every family is this country. Although our health problems are personal and specific to our family, the financial situation that has ensued is not. It is happening to families all over the country and we felt that we had to speak out. Not just to tell our story, but to raise awareness over the current reforms our healthcare system needs. We wanted the chance to speak out, without the possibility of being shouted down, like those at the town hall meetings this summer. Our voices are not as loud as those who have been trying to stop reform at all costs, but when the cost involves the lives of your family, and so many other families in similar or even worse situations, then we need to gather as many calm voices as possible until it combines into a clear loud cry that all the naysayers of reform and the legislation will hear.
Our insurance has helped tremendously, and we would have never gotten the care we have needed without it, but there is something wrong with the system when a country as great as ours can put families at risk for trying to access the amazing healthcare options that exist. Systemic problems require systemic reforms. That is the only way things are going to change. As private citizens and patriots we implore that everyone who reads this brief statement or is within ear-reach of someone who reads it out loud, to contact their congressmen and senators. Tell them that our country, every man, woman and child, needs them to stand up against the pressure of the Insurance, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical lobbies that would keep the system crushing us. We are their constituents, the ones that elected them by a popular vote. We are not interested in electing officials who line their pockets with lobbyist dollars and ignore the needs of their public. We know what is true, and what are fabrications intended to sway the uninformed, and WE WANT REFORM NOW! As courageous legislators such as Congressman Alan Grayson, Senators Charles Schumer and Jay Rockefeller and so many others have said, we need bills with robust public options, and the capping of out-of-pocket expenses to force the insurance companies to compete fairly, thus increasing coverage and lowering healthcare costs for everyone, whether they use the public option or utilize the private insurance companies.
I have been working all my adult life to provide for my family. Monique did too, and she intends to work again once she gets proper vocational rehabilitation. We shouldn’t become the “working poor” to access healthcare, and neither should anyone else. Healthcare reform will allow us to use our wages to pay our bills and live happily, with our heads held high.
Help us and help everyone like us, by helping to make the system change.
Thanks to everyone out there who wants to be a part of the solution. The solution is unity, not division.
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Putting a human face on health care reform
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