Midlands Voices: Focus on families’ health

The writer is executive director of Voices for Children in Nebraska.

It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The same is true for our neighborhoods, our communities and our state. We are each responsible for making the best choices possible to maintain good health.

However, even for families who make all of the right choices, the majority of us are just one serious illness or medical emergency away from financial devastation.

Health insurance was meant to protect families from the unexpected. Yet, health care coverage has slipped beyond the reach of too many hardworking Nebraska families, with 13.8 percent of parents and 19 percent of low-income children uninsured and the rate of uninsurance rising.

Health care reform has generated heated debate across the country. As the debate has dragged on, we have lost sight of what is truly at stake — the health of hardworking American families for whom health care is becoming increasingly out of reach.

We would like to thank Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson for his careful consideration of health care reform proposals and for keeping these hardworking families in mind by choosing to support health reform.

One thing that the majority of Nebraskans can agree on is that the health care system we currently have is terribly broken.

Most of us know a friend or neighbor who has delayed seeking much-needed health care because of the cost. Many of us can recite a personal story of someone losing his health insurance because he was sick or because his employer could no longer afford to provide it.

All too often, we hear of a family who is forced to hold a fundraiser to pay for the cost of treating a child diagnosed with a terrible illness. This family does not deserve to go bankrupt because their child got sick, nor does their child deserve less than exceptional care because the family cannot afford the best that money can buy.

Simply put, we as a state and as a country can and should do better for our children and our families. Throughout this health reform debate, we have lost sight of what’s truly at stake: Ensuring that all families and children have access to health care that they can afford.

With Nebraska’s unemployment rate near its highest point in recent memory, more families are piecing together a living by working two or three part-time jobs, most of which do not provide health care coverage.

When families are uninsured or underinsured, they often avoid care until they reach a health crisis — increasing bills for expensive hospitalizations and keeping parents away from work. We must ensure accessible, affordable, comprehensive and continuous health care coverage for all children and families.

The reform proposals in Congress seek to ensure that more American families have access to affordable health care, regardless of pre-existing conditions, while also allowing those who are satisfied with their health care coverage to keep it.

Admittedly, there is room for improvement in both the House and Senate proposals, but both bills are a major step forward. It’s unacceptable to do nothing and leave children and families to fend for themselves in a health care system that is failing them.

Let us return our focus to the fundamental premise of this debate: Nebraska children and families need changes to our health care system, and we thank Sen. Nelson for playing an active role in bringing change to our broken system.

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