This is a story about my neighbor’s child, Rebecca. She looks like an older version of the little girl in this picture, but I won’t post her photograph. While both girls have cerebral palsy, Rebecca’s parents have never posted an image of her, and I am not about to start.
I can tell you, however, that Rebecca’s life is at stake, as is that of the girl in this photograph, which her parents put online. You have in your power the ability to help keep her safe. In our blindness about what politics and governance really mean, people like Rebecca are often forgotten. Don’t forget her.
I remember back when Obamacare was on the verge of passing. Rebecca was six then, and her parents, despite their limited religious beliefs, were praying for its passage. They knew that obtaining health insurance for such an expensive preexisting condition was almost impossible. Her dad had group health insurance through work, but he knew they could lose it at any time. Without insurance, they didn’t have the money to provide her with the care she needed, and they knew Rebecca’s preexisting condition would keep her from receiving coverage for much of her life.
About that same time, I was reading posts on this site from the absolutists. Obamacare wasn’t universal health care, they wrote, and was a sop to the insurance companies. It was better to have nothing and try again later to obtain a better option, they said. It took every bit of my strength not to curse these people out. Few of them, I felt sure, suffered from a chronic, uninsured pre-existing condition or knew someone who did. To them, this was about policy, not people. At least not real people. Theoretical people in the future might do better if maybe, possibly, some better system were to come along. But as we walked the long, slow road there, people like Rebecca would suffer and possibly die from the complications of her condition.
Lack of empathy is a Republican trait. They are the ones who say blasé things like “her dad should get a better job” or “if he worked harder this would’t be a problem” even though all of it is false. But that same lack of empathy seems to creep into the minds of some liberals as well. Policy affects real people, real people suffer when it goes wrong.
The Republicans have made it clear that, if they win the White House and control Congress, they will rip Rebecca’s insurance away from her. “Kill this girl!” they unknowingly scream, as they pledge to end the Obamacare program that has provided her with insurance. Does it matter that millions of others have been able to obtain health care through Obamacare? Not at all. They don’t care, preferring to recite the latest Fox News lies to justify their inhumanity.
Studies have been conducted showing that, because of Obamacare, people are living longer and are healthier. In fact, the studies have shown that people in Republican-controlled states are not experiencing the change in health that is appearing in Democratic controlled states for one reason: The Democrats aren’t blocking Obamacare.
If the absolutists on our side had had their way and Obamacare had been abandoned, all of the people whose lives have been saved by the less-than-perfect Obamacare would be dead. Real people, with real families. Daughters, sons, spouses, all dead.
Why? For what purpose? Anger? A love of the public good but a hatred of people? Or do they simply not understand that reality doesn’t fit into nice little boxes, where something is either perfect or wrong?
You know where this is going. Time and again, I have seen on this site where people say if their candidate doesn’t win the Democratic nomination, they aren’t going to vote. I’ve discussed this before in the context of my father, a Hungarian freedom fighter who fought alongside people who lost their lives in pursuit of the vote. Now, I talk about it again in the context of Rebecca.
Don’t fool yourself. If the Republicans win, they will kill Obamacare. They will kill millions. They will kill Rebecca. Perhaps the ones who say they won’t vote will rage about the damage then, but they shouldn’t, because they are contributing to making it happen.
Neither Sanders (who I support) nor Clinton is going to take away Rebecca’s insurance. They have different strategies for how to move forward, but Rebecca and all the other Rebeccas in this country will be safe. If the Democratic nominee loses, the results will be devastating. Rebecca’s parents have begun praying again.
Elections are not games where we pick and choose the side we love. It is about real people. If you choose to sit out the election because of some twisted view that only one candidate was worth supporting, there are real world consequences. What happens to Rebecca is one of them.