"There is not any time to waste"
Driving from Orlando to Tampa yesterday, we expected we’d arrive to find a tiny, rain-soaked crowd. The forecast predicted rain all day long, but just as the bus arrived in Tampa, the sun peeked through the clouds. By the time we arrived at the event site, the only thing falling from the sky was the sun, and an overflow crowd had packed their way into the venue to hear from the assembled speakers.
Terry Watson, an OFA volunteer and cancer survivor, explained to the crowd that there were two options for his cancer treatment: one so risky that a major cancer hospital turned him down, and one that was available in every major industrialized nation — except the United States. Terry was forced to go to Tokyo, Japan for his treatment, where his total out-of-pocket expense was ,000, including four days in the hospital. Terry was fortunate to be able to travel for care and be able to afford it, but he called on those gathered to see the humanitarian issue at stake in health insurance reform, and to live up to our nation’s founding ideals:
I want to see us live up to our ideals. And if we’re going to live up to our ideals, we have to have something to make sure that every American is covered by health care. And if we’re going to do that, after we leave here, we need to go out and knock on doors, we need to call our friends and neighbors, we need to get on Facebook, we need to write letters to our congressman, letters to the editor. There is not any time to waste.
Terry was followed by Alison Morano, a small business owner:
I realized a long time ago that health insurance was a luxury that was always going to be a hardship for myself and others who are also self-employed. It’s hard enough these days to keep a business going…to find customers, and build a stable company that you can be proud of. Worrying about healthcare costs should not be a factor in achieving the American dream.
After Alison, we heard Kristen Bell’s heartbreaking story — she’s 22, a student of American History, and because she was dropped from her parents’ plan when she turned 22, she’s now uninsured. Her mother would buy her coverage, but it’s just too expensive. And on the very day of our rally, another of Kristen’s friends lost her coverage.
My best friend’s birthday is today, she’s 22. She’s celebrating her birthday, but at the same time, she knows that today she was dropped from her parents’ insurance. And that scares her, just like it scares all of us. We need health insurance. We need it now…because I’m uninsured, and there are many other college students who are uninsured, and we’re going out into the world without insurance.
Under President Obama’s plan, Kristen and others like her would be covered until their 26th birthday — plenty of time for them to make their first steps into the world and find insurance on their own.
OFA Executive Director Mitch Stewart then took the podium. Mitch got the crowd so fired up that they began the old campaign rallying cry, "Fired Up – Ready to Go!" without any prompting from him. Finishing with a rousing "Yes we can!," we boarded the bus and watched the crowd disperse just as the thunderclouds rolled in and the first raindrops began to fall.
Today we have an event at 4:00 p.m. in New Orleans, and then the bus will continue on to Dallas, Texas. We hope to see you there.
