Health Care Changes

Yesterday a number of provisions of the new health care legislation went into effect. As with any highly charged political issue, folks are making a lot of noise over it. The legislation isn't perfect, but I have a real problem with those who want to repeal it altogether, because one of the provisions that just went into effect prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to people because of pre-existing conditions.

If the legislation is completely repealed, this is one of the people who would be hurt:

Her name is Becca Hill, and she's the smallest premie ever to survive in the state of Tennessee. Her parents (whose permission I received to post this) are dear friends of my family and I. My daughter, Kate, and Becca enjoy playing together and share a love of Elmo. Becca is now two years old, and while she still has a laundry list of medical issues, she's a walking, talking miracle. 

As of yesterday, health insurance companies are no longer allowed to deny her coverage based on pre-existing conditions. This walking, talking miracle is a walking, talking pre-existing condition. She's already exceeded half of the lifetime caps mandated by most insurance companies, so those who say we should completely repeal the health care legislation are effectively saying that it should be OK to deny Becca the care she needs. Whether or not these people realize that's what they're saying, I can't accept their argument.

You can follow the progress of this miracle baby on her mom's blog.

I think there should be ongoing discussion about amending the legislation. But it seems that fear rather than reason or compassion is dominating the political discourse. It's easy to forget that real people are being helped by these changes, and going back to square one would bring great harm to people who are already among the most vulnerable among us.

Perhaps we should think about how these real people are affected by our political actions instead of comparing anyone we don't like to deceased German dictators.