The article below, a mea culpa by a citizen who simply did not see the wisdom however flawed in the healthcare reform bill and how it would ultimately help her, illustrates the importance of messaging. The President and his protégés and to some extent yours truly failed at getting the message out.

At times I was upset with President Obama not because I lost faith in his values but because I lost faith in his methods. I knew their was not a chance in hell that Republicans would work with him. After-all an Obama success would invalidate all that it meant to be the Republican or Conservative of today.

I was upset that President Obama continuously turned the other cheek even as we all knew the GOP never had the best interest of the middle class at hand. Never however did Obama the President lose my most devoted support. After-all my support is to the presidency that Obama represents and I continue to see him as the willing vessel that we will fill with the progressive policies that the nation needs.

Breast cancer, health insurance and an apology to President Obama – latimes

By Spike Dolomite Ward

December 6, 2011

I want to apologize to President Obama. But first, some background.
I found out three weeks ago I have cancer. I’m 49 years old, have been married for almost 20 years and have two kids. My husband has his own small computer business, and I run a small nonprofit in the San Fernando Valley. I am also an artist. Money is tight, and we don’t spend it frivolously. We’re just ordinary, middle-class people, making an honest living, raising great kids and participating in our community, the kids’ schools and church.
We’re good people, and we work hard. But we haven’t been able to afford health insurance for more than two years. And now I have third-stage breast cancer and am facing months of expensive treatment.

To understand how such a thing could happen to a family like ours, I need to take you back nine years to when my husband got laid off from the entertainment company where he’d worked for 10 years. Until then, we had been insured through his work, with a first-rate plan. After he got laid off, we got to keep that health insurance for 18 months through COBRA, by paying $1,300 a month, which was a huge burden on an unemployed father and his family.

By the time the COBRA ran out, my husband had decided to go into business for himself, so we had to purchase our own insurance. That was fine for a while. Every year his business grew. But insurance premiums were steadily rising too. More than once, we switched carriers for a lower rate, only to have them raise rates significantly after a few months.

With the recession, both of our businesses took a huge hit — my husband’s income was cut in half, and the foundations that had supported my small nonprofit were going through their own tough times. We had to start using a home equity line of credit to pay for our health insurance premiums (which by that point cost as much as our monthly mortgage). When the bank capped our home equity line, we were forced to cash in my husband’s IRA. The time finally came when we had to make a choice between paying our mortgage or paying for health insurance. We chose to keep our house. We made a nerve-racking gamble, and we lost.

Not having insurance amplifies cancer stress. After the diagnosis, instead of focusing all of my energy on getting well, I was panicked about how we were going to pay for everything. I felt guilty and embarrassed about not being insured. When I went to the diagnostic center to pick up my first reports, I was sent to the financial department, where a woman sat me down to talk about resources for "cash patients" (a polite way of saying "uninsured".

"I’m not a deadbeat," I blurted out. "I’m a good person. I have two kids and a house!" The clerk was sympathetic, telling me how even though she worked in the healthcare field, she could barely afford insurance herself.

CONTINUED

Breast cancer, health insurance and an apology to President Obama – latimes.com

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Book’s Webpage: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

A little-known bureaucrat in Texas just made a decision that could cost you more in higher health insurance rates.

Worse, you could lose out on actual rebate money that your insurance company may owe you next year!

If you think this is a raw deal for Texas, then we need you to speak out. It’s not a done deal yet, so the more consumers who speak out, the better chance we have of reversing this decision!

Tell the Governor and your lawmakers to reverse the Insurance Commissioner’s decision!

At issue is a rule in the national health care law that says insurance companies can’t spend more than 20 percent of your premium on their administrative costs and profits. Spend more than that, and they must rebate you the difference.

Because of this rule, it’s estimated consumers may get $2 billion in rebates next year. The goal is to finally get health insurance companies to keep costs down, and give us a better value on our insurance. It’s designed to get them to spend more of our premiums on needed health care, not CEO salaries and paperwork.

But your Insurance Commissioner decided to let insurance companies off the hook. Texas  proposed that insurers not meet this requirement until 2014, leaving you without protection from wasteful spending for several more years!

Email the Governor and lawmakers now to withdraw this bad idea! Insurers in your state should have to follow the rules!

This decision hasn’t had much attention, so we need to really make some noise in Texas. Please take action, then forward this or post it on Facebook so state leaders will pay attention.

Thank you!

DeAnn Friedholm
PrescriptionforChange.org, a project of Consumers Union
506 West 14th St., Suite A
Austin, Texas 78701

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Book’s Webpage: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies