My Coverage Rocks And So Should Yours...

I didn't have health coverage until I got married. I had a serious health issue when I lived in St Louis and thankfully the good people at Barnes Jewish forgave my 5,000 dollar medical bill. I didn't have it when we lived in Madison for the first year, and I stood outside the free community clinic at 6:30 am to see if I could be one of the lucky 40 to be seen that day. I have had to beg for samples because my Asthma medications cost 3 dollars a day, for ONE pill. And I am a NURSE. My Mother has been without coverage as a nurse, when working agency or private duty and her coverage now is sub-par. My sister Julie is without coverage, 2 of my brother-in laws are without coverage. Molly is covered only because she is in England with the National Health Service, but once she comes HOME to her HOME COUNTRY, she will be without any safety net again! Crazy. When we moved here to Maryland I didn't have any insurance, and I worked at such a small clinic that they had no group plan. I applied for coverage but was denied due to pre-existing conditions. Thankfully Maryland has a plan for "High Risk" patients such as my self. I paid $325 a month for coverage through the state and still had high co-pays, and thank God I got covered because that next month I got pregnant! I don't care what kind of coverage they come up with here in our nations capital, I just want it to be affordable, easy, and open to everyone and anyone who needs it! I am flabbergasted by all these people who are so angry at the idea of having some type of system to cover the uninsured! Small businesses have been saying for years they can't afford to offer coverage, well this will fix that! Do you honestly begrudge your neighbor the right to affordable health care? Now that I have the luxury of Federal Health Insurance, I am more than willing to pay a higher premium or taxes to ensure that the rest of MY family has the option to buy good insurance at a fair price. I pay less now for all of us than I did to insure myself through the state! I am not asking for universal coverage, that is my dream, but I think the system here in America isn't set up for that, but maybe this could be our jumping off point. This isn't socialism, it's giving all Americans the opportunity to protect the little bit of the dream they have carved out for themselves. Medical bills are the NUMBER ONE reason for bankruptcy in America. If I every needed to declare bankruptcy I hope it would be for a much more exciting reason than that!