j'accuse
... Let me say again, we are in SiCKO not because our story is so unique. We are in this film because we are not unique – we represent what is happening to so many others Americans. That is sad for us all. I worry every night that somewhere out there sits a woman like me who is at the end of her rope and has nowhere to turn. She works, so she earns too much for government-based help that do not allow for extreme medical emergency, but her pay after paying her insurance premiums is not enough to support her family. And tonight she’ll sit alone and hurting, not knowing that I pray for her and for her strength to face another day.I want the members of the committee to know that if HR676, Medicare for All, had been in place for us, we would have weathered the storm. We are hard-working people who under normal conditions make sound money decisions. But placed under the strain of mounting premiums, co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs, we did whatever we had to do to stay alive.
I am so angry with you. I lived the American dream as my father taught me and as his father taught him. I worked, I educated myself, I voted, I bought a home and then moved up into a better home, I raised my children responsibly and I served in my community – and you left me broken and battered because you failed to act on health care reform.
And out there today are hundreds of thousands of people struggling to make ends meet at the same time they are dealing with cancers and heart attacks and all manner of terrible personal health crisis and yet you still fail to act. These people are average, middle class Americans like me who want nothing more than to live a good and decent life surrounded by friends and family in a modest home with enough income to make ends meet.
I am also a Christian. And I do not know what type of Christianity, if any, the current system represents. I hear a lot about family values and respect for human life, but are those just empty words said to placate the religious right voting block or the powerful pro-life lobby? Other good and decent Christians might not share your blind devotion to those points of view. The Christ I learned about as a child attending Arlington Heights First United Methodist Church in Illinois and the Christ I continue to hear about in Sunday services at Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church in Colorado would not allow this to happen to the sick. In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard of any religious group that would allow the sick to be so deeply wounded – and especially not at the hands of other believers. I am asking you to value life and to value it outside the womb too.
And my lobby group will be growing more powerful too. Just as I have come out of the shadows of economic ruin and shame, so too will others come forward to hold you accountable. My faith demands that I love God with all my heart, and to do that I must love my neighbors and care enough to speak up for those too downtrodden to speak for themselves.
But I can only speak here today. You have the power to carry this onward to action. I ask you to search you hearts and your own value systems. Remember hard-working people, put yourselves in the shoes of your constituents and act accordingly. Their bankruptcy shame due to medical crisis really is your shame. You are the body that could have acted and has not. Move forward now, and please do not wait for a new president or for favorable political winds. That course takes no courage whatsoever, and I know each of you has shown courage in stepping up to serve this nation. I just think many of you have lost your way in remembering who elected you and who needs your bravery now.
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