Posting this here, among friends.
As those of you who follow me on Facebook know, I don't get political there. I have good friends and acquaintances of all ideological stripes, and I know how uncomfortable I become when others berate me about politics I disagree with. So I don't go there. But I have to say this somewhere. As a person who was born with a pre-existing condition, and who has a dad with one, I cannot describe the amount of relief I and my family feel tonight. If I wanted, come 2014, I could quit my job to become a full-time entrepreneur, secure in the knowledge i could buy health insurance, and I couldn't be dropped from it if I got sick. And other high risk people, who don't have the good luck to have been born into a middle class family and gone to good schools and been taught that good work ethics bring rewards, will finally be able to get and afford coverage. Do I agree all of this bill? No, both for "liberal" and "conservative" reasons. In most other parts of the country, I would be somewhere between a blue-dog democrat and a moderate republican. But you know what? It's a damn sight better than what we have now. in my opinion. If I turn out to be wrong, I'll happily admit that. but right now, I am typing this through tears of relief that sick and poor people will soon have fuller access to what most of my class take too much for granted.