We are such good friends already and I think you all are awesome, even when we disagree. I loved learning about you in college, especially in my Ira Carmen classes.
Your decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act makes my heart sing. Like most liberal thinkers, I love healthcare access. Like most healthcare consumers I know there is disparity between what care I get at Northwestern Memorial and what care other people get at other facilities, even with the same problems. And, I know that as a nurse nothing could be more important.
It might seem crazy that this 5-4 decision means so much. But it does. And it touches so many people.
I think of kids who need healthcare and can stay on their parent's insurance. I think of people with difficult work situations who can now find affordable insurance. (How stupid is it that you can't be an entrepreneur unless you can afford COBRA or don't need insurance? Is that how great innovations take place?) I think of people who are denied coverage because they didn't have insurance for a while or because they had an injury or illness or "condition." I think of people who go to the emergency department for small problems (UTIs, ear infections) instead of going to a primary care office. I think of people who hoard their medications instead of taking them as prescribed. I think of regular, normal, everyday people -- people who get sicker and worse off because they don't have what they need.
I'm so proud to look at you: our Supreme Court, and see this decision. Certainly, there is dissent. It's funny to me that all the dissent comes from males. (I've been reminded that all the women on the court now were appointed by democrats. But that just makes me more upset.) I'm proud to see that our Chief Justice stood up for the law and its constitutionality.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, my favorite justice, wrote eloquently that "virtually everyone consumes healthcare at some point in his or her life." Healthcare isn't like cars or vegetables or cigarettes or anything else. Heathcare is what we need in the worst moments and what we can't really always consent to.
Healthcare is so important. And if it's not important to you, it probably will be. And if it never is: count your lucky stars.
So thank you, SCOTUS -- as a soon-to-be-nurse, a diabetic, a someday-mom-to-be and a person who cares about other people. You done good.
Love,
Mandasaurus
I have a Nurses For Obama pin on my backpack. It always makes me feel proud (and a little rebellious in the midst of a Catholic university...).
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