Published in the Chestnut Hill Local, April 2, 2009
Commentary: We need a strong bridge to adequate health care
by Marc Stier
The Pennsylvania and New Jersey chapters of Health Care For America Now, a nationwide organization advocating for President Obama’s health care reform program, are holding a march for quality affordable health care at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on Saturday, April 4 at 1 p.m. There will be rallies at Franklin Square in Philadelphia and near the north walkway of the bridge in Camden. And then the Pennsylvania and New Jersey contingents will march across the bridge and meet in the middle.
Why have we chosen to do this event at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge?
Because the path Americans take from hard work to quality affordable health care has become a tightrope over a chasm.
Too many of our fellow citizens have already fallen off the tightrope and landed in a safety net that is tattered and full of holes. They have no health insurance and can only get sporadic health care in the most expensive settings and often long after they first need it.
Too many of our fellow citizens have recently fallen from the tightrope and are only hanging by their fingers. They have lost their jobs and, if they are lucky, are relying on temporary programs that give them expensive and limited health insurance.
Too many of our fellow citizens are finding that the rope is getting thinner. Their health insurance is getting more and more expensive and harder to afford. Or the company they work for is cutting back on insurance and increasing its cost.
Too many of our fellow citizens are finding that the rope is getting more slippery. Though they thought they had good health insurance, they aren’t covered for medical conditions that insurance companies decide are pre-existing or treatments that insurance companies decide are experimental. Or they are running up against lifetime limits on coverage.
And even though we are all working harder and harder to stay on the tightrope to health care, the experience of walking it has become more and anxiety provoking. We are all worried that we might not have health care when we need it.
The insurance companies want us to walk that tightrope one by one. And as we walk, they are shaking the rope and trying to knock the weakest of us off.
We have to replace the tightrope. We have to come together and build a solid bridge to health care, one that we can all cross together.
Even with a bridge to health care, we will still need to work hard to cross the chasm. Health care reform isn’t about giving people something for nothing. But health care reform is about creating together a solid bridge under our feet, one that we can count on always being there.
Health Care For America Now calls for a new, uniquely American approach to health care reform. We want to create regulated competition in the health insurance market and give every American a choice. They can keep the private health insurance they have now, although costs will come down for most people because new rules will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage or charging more on the basis if pre-existing medical conditions or age. They can choose another private health insurer because all insurers will be required to offer a comprehensive health insurance at affordable rates. Or they can choose a new health insurance public program, based on Medicare, open to all.
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge is for us a symbol of the bridge to health care we need to create together this year. We are going to walk across it side by side. And we are going to walk as citizens of our two different states, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We will be lead by those who can walk the farthest. And we will help those who have trouble walking it.
Everyone is going to have to do his or her part. But we can only make it across this bridge because our two governments, acting on behalf of the citizens of our two states, have built a solid bridge we can count on.
And that’s what we, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in every other state in this nation, have to do together this year, build a bridge that guarantees everyone quality affordable health care.
Marc Stier is a Mt. Airy resident and the Pennsylvania State Director of Health Care For America Now.