It's Personal, Not Politics

This week I saw the best argument I have seen on why the Affordable Care Act, ACA or Obamacare, is so desperately needed.  A fellow from Clovis, CA named Steve Spriggs wrote a piece that appeared in the Fresno Bee this week, telling of a ghastly injury that happened to his son in 2010, courtesy of a "16-year-old driver who ran a red light at 50 miles per hour."  Matthew was 22 at the time.  He now has two metal plates in his skull, a reconstructed right leg and five shattered disks in his spine that will have to be fused at some point in the future.  It has already cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars."  You can read the complete piece here.

Thanks to the ACA, Matt has been able to stay on his father's insurance until now.   The family would be bankrupt otherwise.  Matt will now be able to buy insurance on the exchange, and cannot be turned down for his pre-existing conditions.  Spriggs writes, "I am relieved that my son now has a way to avoid becoming a burden on society when I am gone." 

He next turns his fire against "petulant Republican congressmen" including his (and mine), Rep. Devin Nunes, calling them out as "reckless ideologues" who "are willing to bring down our government and crash the world's financial systems in order to keep millions of people uninsured."  They offer "no viable alternative" and "are trying to harm my family in a very direct and personal way."  Spriggs concludes with the thought, "This is not political to us.  This is personal.  This is my son's future."

I really urge you to read the fourteen-paragraph offering yourself, and decide whether you think the ACA is something that needs to be repealed, or whether it is a godsend for millions.  Go to the link: It's Personal, Not Politics, by Steve Spriggs.