Thank God for Obamacare

Pretend you’re a middle class family living in a nice, modest two-bedroom condo in Miami Beach. Your only child, a girl, will soon turn 12. She’s a budding musician, sometimes a writer, who will soon be accepted to what is considered the state’s finest public high school. A school whose focus is the arts. There’s no need to add, but I will… mother and father are terribly proud of this young lady. Their lives revolve around her.

The bad news? About four years ago, the soon to be 12-year-old needed open heart surgery. Mom and dad will do whatever it takes to make sure their daughter gets the attention she needs. But the fact of the matter is that the final bill for the operation and a follow-up second surgery, hospital stays and medicines needed, was about $300,000. 

Thank God for Obamacare. 

Then there’s the guy nearing 60. He’s had high blood pressure for more than a decade — his father’s legacy, and the fact that he’s more than a few pounds overweight. One afternoon returning home from work, he received a notice by mail from his health insurance company — a group he had religiously paid more than $500 a month for a number of years. The letter was direct: Said company would no longer be insuring late 50s guy starting the following month. The reason: high blood-pressure and other matters not clearly stated. The fact: In approximately four weeks late 50s guy would be uninsured after years of paying thousands of dollars to a company that now considers him an expensive gamble, and a bad business choice.

Late 50s guy, who is self-employed, immediately attempts to secure another company to handle his health insurance. He runs into reality. Because of pre-existing condition(s) no one will insure him, unless, of course, he is willing to dole out several thousand dollars a month, which he can’t afford. He spends the next almost two years without health insurance and playing a game of Russian roulette.

It is around this time that Obamacare is approved. And late 50s guy is convinced that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, saved his life because he could finally purchase affordable health insurance. 

After several visits to his doctor, whom he had not seen in almost two years, he is diagnosed with cancer and successfully operated on. The cancer was discovered just in time, he was told.

Both are true stories. 

And if there was no other reason — and there are so many more — it would be reason enough to not vote for Donald Trump in 2020. Because if Trump gets his way, with the help of Republicans, they will do away with Obama’s ACA. They’ve been trying for years, and just this month they again asked the Supreme Court to overturn it. 

Look at it this way. In the middle of a pandemic where 130,000 Americans have died in about 100 days, and where thousands more will perish because of the novel virus, President Trump and his acolytes in congress and the White House are asking the highest court in the land to strike down a program that will wipe out health insurance for no less than 23 million Americans. 

“President Trump and the Republicans’ campaign to rip away the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the coronavirus crisis is an act of unfathomable cruelty.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have said it best when she told The New York Times that “President Trump and the Republicans’ campaign to rip away the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the coronavirus crisis is an act of unfathomable cruelty.” Adding, “If President Trump gets his way, 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions will lose the A.C.A.’s lifesaving protections and 23 million Americans will lose their health coverage entirely.” 

Now imagine yourself the parent of the almost 12-year-old, now a beautiful 15-year-old girl, who’s had heart surgery and still needs medicines, and regular check-ups, and who will be denied insurance because of “pre-existing conditions” without Obamacare…

“Look,” her father told me recently. “If they knock down Obamacare…” He is quiet for more than a few seconds. I know he’s thinking of his daughter. “Any person who favors Trump,” he continues, “and who knows my daughter’s situation…” another pause. “I don’t care who they are. I want nothing to do with them, ever again.” There’s more on his mind, but he’s said enough.

It’s why Pelosi’s use of the word “cruelty” to define Trump’s and the Republicans’ action is way too docile a word. It reminds me of a better word, one used recently by Max Castro in a column where he described the Trump presidency as the hecatomb.

At a time when the Trump administration is using the pandemic to reward friends and family members with juicy multi-million dollar giveaways disguised as an act known as HEROES, they have taken their next step in punishing regular Americans who are getting by and fretting for their future because of an unknown virus.

If for no other reason, and if you believe in justice and that we should be looking out for each other, the move to strike down Obamacare without any other (better) plan to replace it, should be enough for any and all decent American voters to cast a vote against Trump in November. 

Finally, I’d like to add, that late 50s guy whose life may have been saved because of Obamacare is now happily on Medicare. I am that man.