Marilyn Armstrong’s highly personal revelation connects the dots with the call for universal health care.
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH
The question on Quora was “didn’t a majority of Americans have medical coverage before Obamacare”?
I thought about the answer. This is one of those issues in which I had — still have — a gigantic personal stake. I’m one of those people who would never get insurance without laws forcing them to give it to me. Maybe a majority of working adults had medical coverage, but among those who were not — for whatever reason — working, mostly, they had nothing. This includes disabled people, old people, people injured and unable to return to work. And, of course, children.
We were among the group who no longer had medical insurance, although we’d had it before.
I was desperately ill. Massachusetts had not gotten its own medical care system yet and the U.S. had nothing, the situation to which it seems we will shortly return. I could be fixed, but no…
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Views from the Edge 
Are there really people who think the majority of Americans had medical coverage before Obamacare? And are there really people who, if they think so, are satisfied with a “majority?”
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Good question, Mona. I think the answer is Yes to the second question. An enraged couple left the church after I asked the question from the pulpit whether anyone in the pew could imagine Jesus denying a doctor’s care to anyone. “I am NOT a liberal! We worked hard for everything we ever got!” said the spouse on her way out the door. They refused an offer to have follow-up conversation over coffee. Never saw them again.
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OMG! And it makes me sick. But I am also hopeful that all of this will eventually lead to a health plan for all. And it should be a health plan. Not a payment plan. I wonder if that spouse and her husband lived on minimum wage … ? Oh well, …
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The husband and wife did not live on minimum wage, but they made sure I knew that they started with nothing and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat. Simple as that.”
I think everyone should stop talking about “single payer” for the reasons you suggest. The words pay and payer miscommunicate badly.
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Good point. What would be a better title? Universal Health Plan? … ?
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Could be. I like Medicare for All because it’s already a reality for older folks. There’s nothing mysterious about it – all the unknowns that would come with another name.
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Medicare for all — very sensible. But I’ll bet research would reveal a segment of the population reacting emotionally to that word as if it began with F…, Poi…, or …
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I’m sure a segment would. They’d just have to get over it!
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Or convince their ilk to vote against it.
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The plan for a healthy America? TPHA, or “The Healthy America Plan? THAP? Or Plan for an America That’s Truly Healthy? PATH? Ooh. this could be fun. Got to get back to working on “My Fathers’ House,” though
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