WELCOME! The Window is Open.
Welcome to Healthcare. How's that feel? Better?
Need a good story...okay, I'll make it personal.
My wife, age 55, had breast cancer 6 years ago. Thankfully, we had insurance coverage through my employer. Two years later I was laid off. I have been self-employed since. Due to her pre-existing condition, my wife is uninsurable. Denied period. Denied her healthcare. Denied her right as a human being. Marked as unfit.
Well we and our kids now have healthcare at $4.00/month Silver 94 Plan. Through tears of joy and relief, she said, "Finally, I can move forward to live my life. I know I have healthcare. I am not afraid anymore."
Feeling Better, yet? And there are thousands more stories just like this taking place everyday. Personal. Life Changing. Joyful. Healthy & Secure.
The Overton Window is wide open, smell the fresh air!
Think back three months. Not one of these stories could be told. Not one!
Pre-existing condition = denied
Unemployed = denied
Work Part-time = denied
Work three part-time jobs = denied
Self-employed = denied
Get Sick = denied/cancelled
Poor = denied
Switch Jobs = denied
Millions of people denied/cancelled/priced out/excluded/bankrupt/dead.
Only three months ago - Healthcare was a circumstance of privilege.
Today, Healthcare is becoming a human right.
Pre-existing condition = Welcome
Unemployed = Welcome
Work Part-time = Welcome
Work three part-time jobs = Welcome
Self-employed = Welcome
Get Sick = Welcome/Can't be cancelled
Poor = Welcome
Switch Jobs = Welcome
Today, millions of Americans have access to healthcare. Many for the first time. Not as a privilege, but as a human right.
The Old Overton Window - healthcare is a privilege - is being broken. Shattered.
The New Overton Window - that healthcare is a human right - is being built.
Each life changing personal story will move it. Each family with a loved one who receives care will talk about it. Each State with Obamacare well implemented will cover thousands more and move it. Even the press will slowly write about it. And maybe, just maybe, each voter will see the wisdom of voting to keep, expand and improve it.
I know the sample size is still small and the poll results are too early to declare the ACA a winner. Many of the changes will take years to play out.
But, I know what I see and hear happening around me. The change in daily conversations at the water cooler. People are talking about healthcare. Not about death panels, but about getting it. About getting coverage, not facing bankruptcy. About changing jobs with good care. About family coverage not breaking the budget. About coverage for the first time. Even the negative emails from my Repug, Faux-loving relatives are about getting healthcare.
Our collective societial consciousness is moving toward healthcare for all. The View has changed, The Window has moved.
Obama enjoys the view, too!
PS. I know many of our brothers and sisters are being left out; living in Red States denying Medicaid expansion, new immigrants still waiting for reform, insurance companies still gaming the system for profits and squeezing access to care. There are many wrongs, still to be righted.
Fight on!