Dear Congressman Taylor:

The health care debate is one that is personal. Every one of us has a story. Here is mine. It has a few different ‘chapters.’  First, when I was a young single in the 1980’s, I became very sick and needed emergency surgery. I did not have any insurance.  My bill was about $9,000.  I made arrangements with the hospital and paid what I could every week.  Some weeks I sent $7, some weeks $20, and by the time I married in 1991, I owed about $4000.  We paid it off after about a year. 

The first 11 years of our married life, my husband was in the Air Force so we had ‘government’ health care. It was great.  I had both my children at AF hospitals. Once, while on vacation, my then 6 year old son became very ill.  We were at Yosemite and had to go to the clinic.  They tried to bill us, and we paid a deductible, but the AF paid the balance.  Another vacation, this time in Italy , my son cut his hand and we took him to the Emergency Room.  My husband attempted to pay for the care but was told, “No charge.” ( Italy has universal health care.) We left the Air Force in 2000 and had no health care at all for about five months.

When my husband started flying commercial we had insurance by United Health Care.  That was a nightmare.  Every time we had something done, we had to pay and then hope they would reimburse.  But we paid the premiums every month.   After 9/11, my husband lost his job and we moved to the Gulf Coast to go to nursing school.  The only insurance we had then was for our sons through the Children’s Health Insurance Program. S-Chip was great.  The boy’s checkups and immunizations were free, office visits were $5 and prescriptions were $5.  It was a bit of a run around getting them on the program and if I hadn’t had a car and phone it would have been close to impossible. But I was persistent and kept them enrolled until I started working as an RN. So for the three years my husband and I were in nursing school we just hoped we wouldn’t get sick. We were lucky and didn’t.

The insurance we have now through my employer is very good.  It has covered everything we have needed with reasonable deductions and very little hassle.  My husband was sick in January and had to go to the Emergency Room.  We paid the deductable and the rest was covered.  My son was hospitalized in March and it was covered. His follow up care has been covered.  We feel very blessed to be counted as one of the insured families in our country. 

Here’s the point: we have been on government insurance, private insurance, and no insurance.  We even have first hand experience with ‘European style universal coverage.’

We are lucky. We have not been bankrupted by catastrophic illness and medical bills. We have not lost a loved one because of a lack of health care. We do not have chronic illness for which we need constant care.  But we know people who have had these terrible experiences. 

Health care reform and insurance regulation will make it possible for the other 47 million or so who are not as blessed as my family to be covered. 

We call ourselves a Christian nation.  Jesus said, “What you do to the least of these you do to me.” It is time to stop yelling at each other and think about what we are doing. 

Everyone deserves health care.