I wrote this with Georgeanne Koehler and Ann Stanton with the hopes that it would be published as an op-ed in a Pittsburgh Newspaper before the final vote on the Affordable Care Act. It didn’t get in the paper but we got it out on the HCAN PA blog and other places.
Ernest Hemingway once said that in the modern world, a man can live his whole life without knowing whether he is courageous.
Some of us, however, do find out.
One was our brother Billy Koehler, who suffered from both heart disease and the lack of health insurance. Billy lost his insurance when he lost his job as a technician and began delivering pizzas. Because he had a pre-existing condition, he couldn’t get new health insurance. And when the battery on Billy’s defibrillator faltered, he couldn’t afford to have it replaced. That didn’t stop Billy from working hard or make him any less generous or caring a man until the day he died, slumped over the wheel of his car when his defibrillator failed.
That’s one kind of courage. Congressman Jason Altmire (D-PA4) is going to find out this week whether he has another kind of courage.
Congressman Altmire is a bright young man, who knows the health care issue inside and out. He has been open with his constituents about his uncertainty about whether to vote for it. It seems, however, that Congressman Altmire would like to do so.
For Congressman Altmire understands that without this legislation, people, like our brother, who don’t have insurance because they have a pre-existing condition, will continue to die because they can’t get the care they need.
Congressman Altmire understands that without this legislation, health care costs and insurance premiums will keep going up far faster than our wages.
Congressman Altmire understands that this legislation, like all legislation, is imperfect but that we have to start somewhere.
However, Congressman Altmire is worried about his district and reelection. We don’t blame him. He may be worrying too much, however. If Congress finally takes action and Congressman Altmire explains the benefits of the legislation between now and election day, support for the bill will rise, and people will be grateful for his support of it.
And if we are wrong about that, isn’t this exactly the kind of issue on which a member of Congress should show courage? It’s one thing for a politician to back away from an unpopular bill when the issue is small. But, for tens of thousands of Americans, health care reform is a matter of life and death. How can a member of Congress not lead his constituents in support of health care reform, when some of them will die if the bill is defeated?
Congressman Altmire might vote against the bill, guarantee his reelection, and serve many years. And because of his position, he will still have plenty of “friends” here and in Washington. But he will never escape his vote. His vote against a necessary bill, a bill that would save lives, will always be in the minds of colleagues and constituents. It will be in his mind, too, when he looks in the mirror every morning. And on the day after he dies, after a paragraph describing his long political career, there will be a second paragraph about his cowardly vote on the most critical issue during his years in Congress.
If, however, Congressman Altmire votes for the bill, then whether he is reelected or not, he will be truly and deeply admired by his colleagues and constituents and everyone else he knows, now and for the rest of his life. He won’t have trouble looking in the mirror. And on the day he dies, the first paragraph of his obituary will say that he was a true political leader who stood up and did the right thing.
Life is strange. Right now, the lives of my brother Billy and Congressman Altmire are linked.
Billy found out he was a courageous man when he faced his health care issues and lived with them the best he could.
Congressman Altmire will soon found out if he is courageous because he is in a position to make sure that there won’t be any more people like Billy.
One of us has met Congressman Altmire and seen his energy and his commitment to his constituents. We believe he will do the courageous thing. We believe that, on this most important political act of his life, Congressman Altmire will show himself and us that he is a man of courage.
Georgeanne Koehler is unit clerk at Western Psychiatric hospital from Pittsburgh. Ann Stanton is a retired government worker from Baden.
PS 2010: Congressman Altmire turned out not to be as courageous as Georgeanne and Ann hoped. He voted against the Affordable Care Act although he later voted against repealing it. He ran for reelection in 2010 and survived. But he was defeated by Mark Critz in a Democratic primary in 2012, largely because of his vote on the ACA. And no doubt, on the day after h dies, his vote against the ACA will be a prominent part of his obituary.