I, too, wrote President Obama a letter. Mine differed from Ms. Wheeler's in that I begged the president to enact health care reform.
As a cancer survivor I have a pre-existing condition. When I lost my job, thanks to the Bush recession, I lost my health insurance. A major risk health insurance policy for someone in my age group is a few dollars shy of $12,000. That's thousand per year. I don't know many people able to afford that.
My oncologist recommended I be tested every four months. Without health insurance or an abundance of riches, testing becomes a moot point.
Mrs. Wheeler attributes some obscure "members" of the British Parliament for having said that under national health care people are dying left and right and people with cancer can't get care. I would like to remind her that the U.S. ranks 29th in life expectancy and people here can't get treatment for cancer either; as well as heart disease, kidney disease or any other major medical problem. Also, catastrophic medical bills are the second-leading cause of bankruptcies and responsible for 1,500,000 foreclosures. Could the reason be that the U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world that has no health care?
Now about taxes. For the past eight years many of us disapproved of our tax money going for tax cuts for the wealthy and to greedy war profiteers in an illegal war in Iraq. We didn't have silly little tea parties. We paid our damn taxes and waited our turn. Not it is our turn.
Oftentimes on these pages people will quote scripture to drive home a particular point of view. I refer you to the book of Acts. "There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."
There is a saying that people should not have to die because they cannot afford to live. Ms. Wheeler, why do you think it's OK for me to die?
