Many of you won’t be surprised to learn that I’m not a huge fan of President Trump. I am, however, one who championed the peaceful and reasoned transition of power. Just because a person with whom you disagree won the election doesn’t make the election illegitimate. The Russia stuff probably would, but I’m not going to get into that at all. Until we have reason to believe otherwise, I think it is safe to assume that this election is perfectly legitimate.
As I do with everybody, I criticize Trump when I see mistakes being made or bad ideas being spread. We, however, are not dealing in normal times so I have been incapable of keeping up with the deluge of terrible ideas flowing through this White House. Be it a bigoted Muslim ban, an executive order causing schools to harm their transgendered students, or a basic inability to put his dick away long enough to give a speech (metaphor for his incessant boasting about non-existant majorities and false accomplishments), there is far too much for which Donald J. Trump deserves not only our criticism, but our genuine and heartfelt ire.
The latest of this? Donald J. Trump is now using taxpayer-funded IT infrastructure and staff to run a propaganda campaign about a public policy which has made life better for every last American. Sure, insurance companies have used this as an excuse to price-gouge, and absolutely Obamacare could have been better, but it seems unconscionable for a sitting President to use his office to disparage an active public policy which has saved American lives and livelihoods.
This afternoon I received an official email from the White House which took me to this site: https://www.whitehouse.gov/obamacare-share-your-story
Here was the story I had to share with our “President.”
My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in January of 2015. He endured round after round of chemotherapy. Eventually this weakened his heart and they had to cath his heart to see how things were going. In January of 2016 my father developed a perforated colon, and doctors determined that surgery was likely to kill him, and we accepted palliative care.
We were three days in the hospital on the best drugs insurance would buy, while we looked for a hospice or nursing home. My dad died on the third day.
My dad had very little savings, and did not own his home. He worked his entire life and had very little of monetary value to show for it, but because he had worked hard to make sure he always had his health insurance, all of his care was paid for by insurance.
Contrast this to my grandfather who died half a decade before who had to dig deep into his savings to cover the cost of his care after he exceeded his lifetime maximum on his insurance. Very little of his substantial life savings remained.
My father suffered and died in ways that still haunt me, and probably always will, but Obamacare prevented my father from losing his car, his job, and his life insurance, while he tried as hard as he could to watch my sons grow into men.
Shame on President Trump, and the GOP, for soliciting this shameful propaganda. Obamacare was not perfect. It led to huge giveaways to large, mostly unaccountable, corporations. However, Obamacare made it so that mom had some life insurance money to rebuild with. The Republican “if you get sick, die quickly” plan would have made the last years of my father’s life measurably worse and more stressful.
My father died a little over a month away from his 59th birthday. Obamacare guarantees me that my insurance will cover my preventative care when I need my first colonoscopy at 40 because of family history.
These features, of not bankrupting cancer patients and covering preventative care, did not exist prior to Obamacare.
Good day.
