Why am I happy?
My son can remain on our health insurance plan for three more years.
If we lose our health insurance because of the bankruptcy of our former employer, NY has a plan in place to which I can apply in 6 months (not ideal but better than nothing) and in 2014 the insurance exchanges will provide competition and lower cost policies — again not an ideal solution, but something.
My son, daughter and I will not have to worry about the not being granted health insurance or non-coverage of claims because of our pre-existing conditions.
The donut hole for my wife’s medicare prescription drug coverage will continue to go away.
Caveat to my happiness: If Romney is elected all this will go away. The only thing between my family’s continued health care coverage and our economic survival is the re-election of President Obama.
I have been greatly disappointed by Obama’s presidency during the past 4 years, but if he is elected the health care reform bill cannot be repealed because of his veto power. If Romney is elected we lose everything: We get the Ryan budget on steroids. We see Medicaid eliminated. We see Medicare turned into a voucher program. We see Social Security destroyed piece by piece.
We see the United States of Multinational Corporations (if you think this is already the case just wait and see how much worse it can get — just ask Greece and Spain) and the end of voting rights for millions of citizens. We see the beginning of a one party state.
I’d like to live in a fantasy world where all the progressive, common sense policies I support would be enacted: the end of trade deals, strengthening of union rights, reduction of carbon emissions, higher taxes on the wealthy, subsidies for renewable sustainable energy, investment in crucial infrastructure, free higher education for all college students, increased regulation and enforcement of existing laws regarding the financial markets, increased voting rights and voting made easier, equality for all LGBT individuals in every aspect of their lives, the death of Citizens United along with the idea that corporations are persons with greater rights and liberties than ordinary human beings, and so on and so forth.
However we don’t live in that world. So today I will be happy for what I still have.
