Thank you notes are not for everyone

Well done, President Obama, well done. I congratulate you for navigating the bureaucratic waters and finally passing the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 on Sunday night in Washington. And yet, I hate to inform you, but our very own Attorney General, Mr. John Suthers, would like to challenge the need and right of every American to have access to public health care. In order to support Mr. Suthers’ argument, one must agree with his notion that reforming health care in the way Mr. Obama has suggested is unconstitutional. In other words, he believes that when our forefathers wrote the constitution they believed in equality in every measure BUT in that of health care. Mr. Suthers’ press statement is that the “government cannot force Americans to pay for a product they might not want”. While I concede to his point that it is not fair to require people to buy a product they do not want, such as say, a pair of jeans or laundry detergent, health care, in my opinion and the opinion of, at the very least, the population of over 41 states, is that health care is a service everyone will need at some point in their lives. Mr. Suthers, health care is not a pair of unwanted jeans. It is not laundry detergent. It is not a product. It is a service that every American has the right to access. It is a service that almost every other developed country offers its valued citizens, while we in America have failed to provide it to our people. Mr. Suthers would like to use Colorado’s tax-payers dollars to file a law suit against Obama’s health care legislation which the president will sign into law on Tuesday.

Let’s quickly recap some important points of the health care bill: the overall purpose of the bill is to have as many people as possible be insured, to expand health care coverage, and to decrease insurance prices nationwide. This sounds like a service everyone needs, whether they want it or not. No one wants to get sick, no one anticipates month-long hospital stays, and yet, if those events befall you, then you, my dear American citizen, will need and want the services that will be provided and paid for under the health care reform bill. And while the new health care reform bill will provide coverage for men and women, let’s take a moment to observe what the specific benefits to women are. The bill will provide low income women with preventative reproductive health care through Medicaid. (Supporting programs that sponsor preventative reproductive care saves tax-papers an estimated $14 million annually.) It will allow newly insured women to use their private health care to access medical care offered at community centers (like Planned Parenthood!). It will ensure that women with modest incomes can still benefit from free or low-cost breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings. It will stop insurance companies from charging women more than men for private health insurance. It will forbid insurance companies from denying private health insurance to women with “pre-existing” conditions such as pregnancy, c-sections, or having survived domestic abuse. (I’m sorry, but how are any of these things “pre-existing conditions” for which women must be monetarily punished? Scratch that, how are any of these things “pre-existing conditions” period??)

The great state of Nevada is writing “thank you” letters to its Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto, for supporting health care reform and for NOT using countless tax-payer dollars to file a lawsuit against this much needed health care bill. Mr. Suthers, I wish I could write you a thank you note. I would love to know that my tax dollars are NOT being spent to fight a bill which will provide a service that is guaranteed to be utilized by me, my family, friends, and neighbors at some point in our lives. 100% GUARANEED to be utilized by us. What other service is guaranteed to be utilized by every single American? Mr. Suthers, I wish I could write you a thank you note because you too think it is ridiculous and, to use your favorite word, unconstitutional that women have to pay more for health insurance than men, but I cannot, because you believe that is okay. I wish I could write you a thank you note because you believe that everyone has the right to quality public health care, but I cannot, because that is not something you believe. Mr. Suthers, your actions prove that you believe it is better to use Colorado taxes to file a law suit against the president’s health care reform bill, which will 100% be utilized by every single American citizen at some point during their lives, than to stop the senseless spending of our tax dollars and throw your support behind a well thought-out, imperative improvement in American domestic policy. I do not follow your logic. I do not agree with you. I cannot write you a thank you note.