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Let me tell you why it is so important to support Barack Obama.
An accident three months ago took the life of my husband and left me with severe injuries.
As a physician and gynecologist I was trained to care for patients. What I was not trained to do was to BE a patient and to go through the fear and powerlessness that comes with being truly ill and needing to be cared for. I was one of the lucky ones with health insurance.
In my rehabilitation center, I spoke to a young woman whose husband got in a car accident and had a severe brain injury. They had three young children, but no health insurance for themselves because her husband was self employed, and the individual market that John McCain says is the answer did not offer them affordable insurance. Not only did this unfortunate woman have to deal with the fact that her husband will never be the same, but that she will probably lose her home, her savings and everything she had worked for. I think the accident was punishment enough.
This family joins 45 more million Americans who lack health insurance. Most Americans who are uninsured are working, women and young, like this family. What became clear to me after the accident is that planning for everything to always go right is just not good enough. Life throws curve balls at you that you would never expect.
For health care nothing is more important than the outcome of this presidential election. I believe that Barack Obama should be elected president for many reasons, but above all, because he has a health care plan that will finally give access to insurance for every American. He creates a new system for people in the individual market, like the family I met at the rehab center, so they can finally afford care. He is going to end the “free for all” for insurance companies where they can choose what benefits they cover, deny care, and exclude patients based on pre-existing conditions. I understood the need for health care reform before my accident, but I didn’t realize firsthand how important it is at a time of need to feel comforted and cared for by a health care system when you truly need it. McCain’s plan for health care is to tax those of us who enjoy health care through our employer even more for our care. Non-partisan assessments are that he will throw an additional 20 million Americans into the individual market that has already failed so many. I can’t stand by and watch that be enacted, because it would make getting health care even more difficult for those who don’t have it and more difficult to finance for those who do.
There is a special character in the Chinese language; it means crisis and opportunity. Even though I have had a tremendous loss, I have the opportunity now to use what I learned to help others. As a physician, as a patient, and as an American I can no longer tolerate the injustice in our system, and will do everything I can to work to change it and help elect Barack Obama.
Rebekah E. Gee MD MPH
Obstetrician/Gynecologist
Dr. Gee is the co-chair for women’s health for the Obama for America campaign.
