Health care reform

As I watched my marriage spiral downward, I considered my choices. There weren't a lot of them. Family? None. Friends? None who could take me in. Job market? Not good. Still, I might have risked going out on my own a lot more quickly if there hadn't been this question:

Health care?

You see, my job never had health coverage. My spouse's did. I was covered as long as we were married. If we divorced, I lost my coverage for the medications and care that quite literally keep me alive.

Over the counter, the medications I need cost over $200 a month. That's a lot if you have nothing. If I had been trying to pay for them out of my job, I could not have covered both medications and rent. COBRA coverage, which was affordable on an entry-level income when I left my first spouse more than 20 years ago, is no longer even close to affordable now.

I was more fortunate than a lot of women. I wasn't being beaten, raped, or threatened by my spouse. But if I had been, I would still have faced that choice. It's a choice no one should have to make. Everyone should have access to health care through a single payer system.

"Death panels," you say? We have them now, but they work for health insurance companies. Denying people the care they need so that executives can have petting zoos and supporting a system that makes health insurance and care inaccessible to people who need it is as destructive as a "death panel" could ever be--even if they existed.

If that makes me a "socialist," this month's right-wing scare word, then everyone on Medicare is a socialist. What's that? You worked hard and paid taxes, so you should have health care? Why, yes, I agree! I just want to extend that basic human right to those who are too young to work,or have jobs that can't or won't provide insurance, or are out of work, and who aren't old enough to be eligible for Medicare.