I want healthcare not health insurance. Insurance is me betting on whether I’ll get sick/injured or not and need to use it. At its core, Insurance is a hedge against uncertain loss. The problem is with health there will always be loss. We are all guaranteed to require medical assistance at some point in our lives. Unlike car or home insurance where there is always the possibility that we will not need to get a payout because we may never have a car wreck or have damage done to our homes. Your personal health is not something anyone should be betting against.

People shouldn’t be forced to purchase health insurance from private entities, but we should provide health care for those who need it. Having people go broke, and lose everything because they didn’t see cancer coming is not only sad but cruel as well. I absolutely see a need for single payer health care. I would gladly pay slightly more in taxes to make sure others are never forced to choose between the rent and the doctors. I’ve been there and it’s a horrible place to be.

When I was first diagnosed with Graves` Disease I did not have health insurance. Mark was working but his employer did not provide dependent insurance for their employees. I was too sick to work and we couldn’t afford to buy insurance. Because it was prior to the affordable care act, I also couldn’t qualify for medical assistance. We racked up quite a debt in medical bills and eventually had to file for bankruptcy because we just could not handle the debt. That was just over seven years ago and we are just now starting to get our credit back on track. In our early & mid-forties.

Single payer healthcare would prevent this exact same type of scenario from occurring for many others. I definitely don’t believe we should get rid of private insurance all together but I do believe we need to make sure that it’s not the only way one can get health care.