By Rosie Martinez
LA County Public Health Nurse
This week I witnessed the health care debate that’s shaking up our nation when I want to a Town Hall with my Congressman.
So many people are asking “Why do we need health care reform”? For me, fixing this system is a personal quest.
I went to the Town Hall with my daughter Pilar, a 35-year-old single mother without health insurance for herself and her three children. A few years ago she was working as a Licensed Vocational Nurse, a professional with 15 years of experience in her field. But like more than 11 million people in the past few years, she lost her health insurance when her clinic closed.
She returned to school and pursued a nursing degree and now works as a hospice nurse, giving comfort and care to dying patients and their families. But her employer doesn’t provide health insurance, and she can’t afford it.
I find her circumstances ironic: She cares for the dying yet she does not have health insurance for herself and her children.
When she or her children become ill she must depend on public health clinics or emergency rooms. Because my husband and I both are able to help her financially she reluctantly asks for help — $60 to $200 to pay for clinic visits and medication.
There are so many people like my daughter and her children who are unable to afford the rising cost of health care. Their stories are getting lost in the noise and mistruths about health care that some people are spreading. This week President Obama launched a web site called “Reality Check” to combat the rumors about what fixing health care would mean.
I ask you again, “Do we need health care reform?
For me the answer is clear. Yes, Yes, and Yes.