If you don't quite understand what health care reform is all about or want a face of someone whose life will forever be changed by health care reform, then you need watch this TED talk for kids by Toby, a ten year old in my community.
Toby is the oldest son of one of my colleagues. I will share some of the information on the site where this Youtube is embedded.
10 year old Toby has been very curious about the universe and is ready to go all out and find the invisible. Is it possible to communicate with aliens, how do they speak, what do they look like, and do they even exist? There is no proof so the real question is: where are they? If they exist they are far away, if they don’t exist then why do we look for them? Well we don’t know so what is this talk about? You will go through the galaxy with Toby and find yourself back in time and into the future and find what we know of the invisible and enter if you want to know the truth. . .
Here is what healthcare reform comes in.
Toby has not had it easy. Here is more from his biography:
When he was six doctors discovered that he had P.J.S., a rare disease where he is missing a copy of a gene giving him a higher chance of cancer and other diseases.
He hopes to be an engineer, scientist, artist, english professor, cook, and astronaut. He wants to travel the world (the universe) and wants to live on the Antarctic (he is scared of bugs). His favorite activities are hiking, sliding off cliffs, thinking of games and crafts, creating mazes, starting books, reading books, and learning new things. His favorite subject is math and he has made up something that makes sense but mathematically makes no sense (that is a long story so I will leave that out).
That diagnosis did not come cheap. And, his family received support from our tax money. More importantly, because of health care reform, Toby will not be denied coverage and Toby's insurance will never have a limit on his coverage.
He has health insurance now (and his parent have not been bankrupted) and he will have health care in his future. Let us hope and pray Toby will make it to adulthood.
Any ten year old who wonders about alien life has an interesting life ahead of him. We are better country because health care reform will make that possible.
(Of course, Toby is a student in a public school, but that is another post.)
Toby is why we must defend health care reform and make it better. We need as many Tobys as possible to contribute to our country.