Hear My Story: I Chose Sight for My Daughters Over Preserving My Own Vision

This story of a mother in Florida could be anyone unlucky enough to be born with the hereditary syndrome that makes her progressively blind. The family's health insurance can only pay for the mother's treatments, or that of her daughters. What a choice to make, eh?

To think that in developed countries all around the world, no other people are forced to make these kinds of unbearable choices. The full story's here, in the St. Petersburg Times.

When elected representatives in Congress go against the public option, they're going against something that will directly affect you and your family's well-being. They're siding with insurance company profits over you.

Today, the Senate Finance Committee votes on the Rockefeller amendments to the Baucus bill, which would ensure the senate version of the health insurance reform bill has a strong public option and other requirements that insurance companies follow strict regulations protecting consumers.

You remember Wendell Potter, the health insurance marketing executive who used to figure out ways to mislead the public during the Clinton administration's attempt to reform the industry? The Wendell Potter who's now the whistleblower on the bottom-line driven way the industry's run against the individual who's insured? Here's what Potter has to say about relevant and desirable Rockefeller amendments up for a vote:

The adoption of an amendment to create a strong public option, supported by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and many others on the committee, is certainly job one. But there are many additional fixes that are necessary, including other amendments being offered by Senator Rockefeller. They are so important I have sent a letter to Senator Baucus and the other members of the committee urging them to adopt the Rockefeller amendments that will require private insurance companies to be more honest and transparent in their dealings with consumers and more accountable to federal and state governments that must regulate them.

...

I urge you to incorporate Senator Rockefeller’s Amendments #C12 and #C13 into the America’s Healthy Future Act (AHFA), in particular with regard to the need for airtight regulations to protect consumer interests.

This is another opportunity to support and thank senators like Jay Rockefeller and the others who have fought for the interests of the American people over those of insurance corporations. Let them know that half-measures won't do it. Regardless of party identification, a significant majority of the public demands a public insurance option, it's what doctors themselves want, and it's what we expect to get. It's the more humane, the more fiscally responsible, and, paradoxically, the more business-friendly America we envisioned when we voted for change last fall. Right?

Cynematic writes at P i l l o w b o o k.