Everyone gets sick

Primitive cultures often believed that illness was a punishment from the gods, that those who were ill deserved it. This is a view that has become a scaffold on which policy has been built. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) actually stated that “people who lead good lives” shouldn’t have to pay more for the sick.

I challenge anyone who holds that belief to spend one day in my shoes. I am a resident physician. We spend 80 hours a week tirelessly serving our patients.

We work 28-hour shifts to take care of absolutely anyone who walks in our doors.

I have fallen asleep in public, missed weddings and funerals, and still haven’t met one of my nieces because of this job.

To every congressperson who voted “yes” to the AHCA:

Hold the hand of my man dying of heart failure as he clutches his Bible. Tell him his children will be ruined by the bills from his hospitalization.

Look into the eyes of the parents of my patient born three months early.

Tell them that they can never afford the care she needs.

Sit with my pediatric transplant patient — the one who squealed with excitement when President Donald Trump was elected. Tell him he will never get insurance.

Everyone gets sick eventually. Few things in life are certain but death and taxes. When your time comes, one of us will be fighting for you every minute, every hour. If this bill passes, I’ll pray you’ll be able to afford it.

But we’ll fight for you either way.

Kathryn Berlin

Milwaukee