Almost every day of my law practice for the past 24 years has involved listening to someone tell the same tale over and over, with minor variations thrown in. They worked until they got sick or injured. They had health coverage for a while through one program or another, or their employer sponsored health insurance, but there came a day when they still needed health care and the bottom dropped out. Their COBRA ran out, or they couldn't afford the COBRA in the first place, or their spouse on whose plan they depended died, or lost his job, etc. The variations are endless but the bottom line is the same--no way to pay for necessary health care costs. The result? Disability, bankruptcy, divorce, and the loss of a productive member of society.

According to the tea party and Kill the Bill rhetoric, I guess this situation is okay with some people. I'm guessing none of those spewing this line of thought have ever personally found themselves in the situation of needing to get health care in order to live and having no way to get it. Or worse, watching a spouse or child in that situation and being utterly unable to help them.

My job is to help my clients get on Social Security disability, which in turn can get them Medicare or, sometimes, Medicaid. It is an arduous, lengthy process and shouldn't require the assistance of a lawyer, but it does. I have had many cases over the years where, had my client had reasonable access to care, he or she would not have ended up disabled and needing lifelong disability benefits (paid for by us taxpayers). The classic example that I have pointed to many times was my client, a young woman whose husband died, leaving her without insurance, who then broke her hip and couldn't get any help because, according to the University Hospital ER, it wasn't "an emergency." By the time I got her on Medicaid, it was too late to restore full function to her hip. She will likely be on lifetime disability benefits (and Medicare) in part because there was no way for her to get the help she needed when she needed it.

I am under no illusion that the health care reform bill passed yesterday will help all of the people who need it, but it is a step in the right direction. The status quo is simply not sustainable. The current system costs us more in dollars and well-being and in the cohesiveness of society than this bill ever will.

I simply have no more patience for anyone who thinks this is socialism or "bad for business" or creates a death panel or any of the other lies and garbage being spewed. My experience tells me you are wrong, the hard facts and no less than the Congressional Budge Office says you're wrong, and my clients will all tell you that you are wrong. These are real live human beings and I am looking forward to being able to cut back a little on my office Kleenex budget in years to come.

God Bless those who stood up for what is right and got this bill through.

If Republicans ran the water system

What if the Republican Party/Tea Party folks were in charge of the water system in your town?

You might be lucky enough to work for an employer that provides clean water as a benefit. Of course, you would have given up pay increases and other benefits over the years in order to hang on to that precious water. And, when you lose your job you lose your source of clean water and have to go out on the open market to get it somewhere else. If you've ever actually drank the water in the past, you will be charged astronomical rates, if you can find a provider at all. Most water providers will charge at least twice as much as as the employer sponsored program, but hey, you should have thought of that before you lost your job.

If your employer does not provide you with clean water, or you are unemployed, you have to find water where you can. If you have a source of income and own land, you might be able to dig a well on your property and treat the water yourself. If not, you will have to get it from your nearest stream or river and treat it yourself by putting a few drops of bleach into every bottle you dip out of the stream. Of course, if someone sells you a bottle of bleach that turns out to be some other random chemical, or just plain water, you have no recourse against your supplier regardless of how sick you got from drinking untreated water, because our friends the Republicans have enacted tort reform that prevents you from suing for more than the cost of the bottle of bleach.

If you are just desperately poor, with no land, no bottle to dip into the stream, then you have to line up at the County fairgrounds once a month for the free water handouts sponsored by the local charitable groups. And when they run out, they run out, and you'll have to get in line earlier the next time.

Under this system, people get sick and die because of tainted water. Sometimes people who have sources of clean water get sick anyway because they come in contact with the great, ahem, unwashed.

Of course, the very wealthy don't see any problems with this system. They can afford to dig deep wells and buy fancy reverse osmosis treatment systems to provide a lasting source of clean, fresh water. "What's the problem?" they ask.

The progressives, however, say hey, what a screwed up system! Wouldn't it be better if we all shared in the basic cost of a water treatment plant, provide clean water to everyone at a lower overall cost, and increase the overall level of public health?

In essence, this is the health care debate. The basic problem is that Republicans and their Tea Party friends find no problem with the current system. They have their clean water/health care, and it's the finest in the world. What is the problem? Why should they invest in a system that will provide clean water/Health Care to all, if that is their basic belief?

Bottom line: it is hard to get someone invest money into fixing a problem that they believe doesn't exist.