Loralee & The Health Care Reform

When I first started blogging and networking through the blogger sites, I came across a woman named Loralee. She is a friend of my friend Kara (who I went to high school with) and one bored day at work I casually started reading her blog. Soon, however, I realized there was nothing casual about her blog. She is a beautiful writer, and every blog I read drew me further into her saga, and then I found a blog that literally made me sit down and cry at work. You could feel her emotion with her, and even though it was crippling pain to feel her words that much, it made me want to write like her. It made me wish I had half the talent that she does. You can read the post that started my fascination with her here: "Her"

This woman has been through so much, including the loss of a child (read about her loss here: "Trauma"), something that I can't imagine having to go through. You don't ever get over that.

From reading her most recent blog I learned that through this last pregnancy (which is nearly 6 years after the loss of her 3 month old child to SIDS) she was denied Health Insurance because they deemed it a "pre-existing condition." I find myself shaking my head in disbelief and wondering how losing a child 6 years ago to something unrelated could be considered so, but lets face it, our health care system is royally fucked up.

The Health Care reform has been an issue of much debate, even amongst my friends who have had some pretty valid points. I've seen many conversations even on Facebook, and one friend will complain about "socialized health care" and both liberal and conservative alike have joined in the ongoing post voicing their opinions on the matter. What do I think? I think we need change, big time, and that we need it soon. This is coming from a low-earning uninsured individual who pays her taxes and (for the most part) abides by the law and lives her life the way she should. I pay for medicare and social security, and yet I don't use medicare and the SS will probably be gone by the time I come around to needing it. Taxes aren't going to go away if we say "I'll pay every cent of my own health care." So let's put some of them towards something that may actually help more of us out!

I am by-far no expert on the matter, and I have no idea what I would do exactly, but who am I but a lowly citizen with a stifled voice? The White House doesn't care what I have to say on the matter. Or am I wrong? Loralee, granted is much more well-known out there in cyberspace, but she's just another citizen like me, and living right here in conservative little Utah! What's the relevance? Loralee was invited to speak with Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to the President of the United States, about her views on the Health Care Reform. Isn't it wonderful that someone on our level actually got to go out there and have her voice heard by the White House? To have her story passed on to President Obama?

This gives me hope that the voice of the little guy will start to be heard again.

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories." - Thomas Jefferson

You can read Loralee's blog about her interview with the White House by clicking the title below.

The only thing that would have made attending a luncheon with a senior advisor to the president to hear my views on health care reform cooler is if it had actually been held at The White House. (I would have totally pinched some hand lotion from Obama's bathroom. I bet he uses the good stuff.)

Read Valerie Jarett's post on Loralee (on the White House web page) by clicking the following link.

Talking Health Reform with Loralee