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Everyone at Amplify knows why health care reform is important. It's important because there are far too many Americans who are uninsured, far too many being dropped from their plans or unable to get coverage, and far too many struggling to pay for the coverage they do have. It's important to young people because we're the one's that often have gaps in coverage, between school and work, between jobs, between our parents paying (maybe- if they can) and us starting to pay for it ourselves. It's important because we believe in real equality. And it's crucial, because the youth of America know better than anyone else that we have to think in the long term.
But here's why health care is critically important to me: I believe in a woman's right to choose- not just the right to choose NOT to have a child, but also the right to choose TO have a child.
On March 12th the White House used the number 41 to talk about why health care is important (as a part of their "Health Care by the Numbers" campaign). Here are their reasons:
41 -- that’s the number of leading economists -- including three Nobel Prize winners -- who sent a letter to President Obama and Congress yesterday urging the swift passage of comprehensive health insurance reform to curb skyrocketing health care costs. [Source]
41 -- is also the percentage of adults under the age of 65 who accumulated medical debt, had difficulty paying medical bills, or struggled with both during a recent one year period. [Source]
Here's another:
41- According to Amnesty International, the US's rank among nations for a woman's likelihood to die in childbirth. We pay the most for our health care, yet a woman is more likely to die in childbirth of preventable causes- five times more likely than in Greece, four times more likely than in Germany, three times more likely than in Spain. Oh and by the way, pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition.
This is outrageous. Republicans, where are you? "Right-to-life" folks, where are you? It seems to me that this is one issue we can all rally around. This is why we have to pass this bill, everyone. Amnesty doesn't say that, but I do.
To view the report from Amnesty, and learn what you can do (beyond just praying for reform to pass), click here.
