Bad health system about to get worse, thanks to politics

Mary Sanchez

House Republicans couldn’t wait for the results of the Congressional Budget Office’s assessment of their bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, so they rushed the vote. They passed the American Health Care Act in early May.

And now we know. It’s a disaster.

The CBO released findings that estimate 23 million people will lose their insurance, only 1 million fewer than a previous version that failed in the House in March. If passed by the Senate and adopted into law, the costs of coverage will escalate for millions more. Older and poorer Americans will be disproportionately affected. The rich will be rewarded with lower premiums.

After the CBO released its analysis, Republicans predictably questioned its accuracy while Democrats issued grim warnings. Absent was any bipartisan resolve to improve the current system.

A booklet that has been sitting on my desk for a month beckoned. It’s titled, “The Face of Our ACA: Stories From the Kansas City Metro Area.”

It’s a collection of ac- counts written by average citizens detailing their health care dilemmas. Their words are simple, direct — like something your neighbor might convey. And you’d listen.

Getting Congress to listen is another matter.

A woman writes of her 3-year-old granddaughter, diagnosed with cancer. She includes a beautiful color photograph of the girl, which graces the cover.

The little girl in the pink princess dress is bald from radiation and chemotherapy. She was diagnosed 18 days after the family signed up for the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare.

“The bills for her treatment are approaching $2 million,” her grandmother writes. “Without the ACA, I don’t know what this family would have done.”

Probably separate the girl from her siblings, she guesses, so that she could get treatment at charity care out of state. Or the family would go bankrupt.

The booklet is handmade, printed on a home computer by a Kansas City-area woman, Janis Deveney. She solicited people’s stories via social media and sent the compilation to Kansas and Missouri members of Congress.

One can easily imagine booklets compiled in every congressional district in the country. And they should be.

A mother writes of the death of her adult son, who had asthma and avoided going to the doctor because of his health plan’s high deductible.

She concludes: “People need affordable health care and not (to) be punished with high premiums and high out-of-pocket expenses because they have pre-existing conditions. ... (T)hey defer care and some die.”

Cancer, heart disease, diabetes — medical maladies know no political bounds.

Nor do the cruel effects of aging. Anyone can suffer a debilitating health crisis. At some point, most people will.

The point is made, anecdote by anecdote, deftly and jarringly.

Interestingly, one subject the writers mostly avoid is politics. How I wish the same were true of Congress. Passing solid health care reform aimed at improving the lives of the most vulnerable among us should be the aim — not pressing political advantage.

Literally, the health of the nation relies upon transcending politics. And yet it is partisan preening that has carried the day.