Medicare4All or I Dont Vote

"Please.  My husband is in the hospital."

There was a pause on the phone.

"OK.  We can delay the hearing for two weeks.”

My conversation with the opposing lawyer let me breathe a little.  We had a foreclosure hearing coming up and litigated against each other frequently.  He is a good guy.

My husband Justin had just been diagnosed with Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) and had a dangerously low number of platelets in his blood.  A normal person has 100,000.  My husband had 3,000.  He was in and out of the hospital for a month.

There were signs something was wrong for a while: large bruises on his stomach, some bleeding in his gums, but I told myself I would focus on it after my two upcoming trials. When his friend threatened to tell me how bad it really was, Justin told me.  I made him go to the emergency room immediately.  He almost died a few times.   He has Medicare, though, and getting full treatment for him was available to us, and so were the many follow-up doctor appointments.    His care is a part-time job.  I can’t do another one also.

Let me tell you something:  the Democratic Party doesn’t care if you live or die.  If they did, Medicare4All would be part of its platform.  Over 45,000 people die each year because they can’t afford healthcare.  People like Justin, but who don’t have Medicare.  With the almost-certain nomination of a sputtering old man as the Democratic candidate for President, one who promises to veto Medicare4All, the centrists in the Democratic Party have announced their priorities.  Those priorities don’t include most of America.

Since my husband’s diagnosis, I've shut my law firm and instead do document review - basically temp work for lawyers.  Schedule flexibility lets me get Justin to doctor's appointments.  Justin is on disability and has Medicare.  If he didn’t, we would be going into old age with nothing but medical debt.

I don’t have Medicare, just medical insurance with a $7,000 deductible.  My story is that I have been putting off basic preventative tests and hoping I don’t have cancer.  I can’t get issues checked out before a serious problem.  I hope I am really healthy and not just deluding myself.

When Joe Biden says he won’t sign a Medicare4All bill into law, he is taking away life from people like my husband and making widows of people like me.  When shouts of "Let poor people die!" are heard at the Republican National Convention, they think it will never be them to suffer.  The struggles with my husband’s health are bad enough without medical debt.  Creating this health atmosphere makes us weaker as a nation and in our souls.

Bernie Sanders leads us in the fight for Medicare4All - but not as much as we need him to.  He thinks Joe Biden is his friend.  Joe isn't your friend.  He isn't a friend to any American.  I was an intern at the Senate Judiciary Committee when Joe Biden chaired it.  He is mean and petty behind the plastic surgery and whitened smile.

So now we must lead ourselves.  You want my vote? It's Medicare4All, bitch.  You need me more than I need anything you offer.