The Obama Diary

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AdorableCareAct.tumblr.com

There’s another reason why the Republicans oppose Obamacare. There is a worldview that equates sickness with laziness and lack of effort. Notice the asides about slackers on disability and the poor and chronically ill by the right. The “you’re not really sick, just faking” is the attitude. Wellness is a sign of virtue to them, not a matter of education and resources. Obamacare blows that whole thing out of the water by providing resources and education to those who are deemed “unworthy”. Health care without judgement?

Well, my asthma certainly isn’t a sign of immorality-more likely a combination of genetics and a near-lifetime of breathing in auto fumes and dust. Being virtuous is no substitute for an inhaler.

I know it’s pretty sick. But I’ve been there. As a single person with no kids, Medicaid coverage was withdrawn from people like us in the early nineties. The Medicaid expansion would once again cover some of us too young for Medicare and too poor to get insurance otherwise . And many single adults also have “pre-existing conditions”, mental illness and other problems that require medical intervention. And right on schedule, the old rhetoric is returning from Republicans because we can now get health care from Medicaid if we cannot afford any private insurance.

While I now have health care, thanks to being in a Government job, I haven’t forgotten what it was like not to have consistent care, nor what it was like to have no doctor of my own for 20 years. And I no longer live in fear that if my job were to go away, I would be unable to get some kind of coverage.

kaiserhealthnews.org

Denver Post

Obamacare, with its expansion of the safety net means that the lessons supposedly taught by “sickness” will no longer be taught. We childless losers will not feel the sting of our immoral lifestyles. Instead of being an example of how one must conform to be healthy, we will be an example of living our lives on our own terms.

Monday, I’m volunteering outside our local welfare office handing out flyers on Obamacare.

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