There are so many reasons why I support Barack Obama for president. His foreign relations philosophy, support of families, belief in equal rights for all and education reform ideas are all well thought-out, fair-minded policies that just make sense. To read Obama's Blueprint for Change, visit www.barackobama.com/issues.
I will focus on the issue that is most important to me in this election year: health care.
I firmly believe that our society has a moral obligation to provide quality, affordable and portable health care to all of its citizens. Barack Obama's plan for healthcare (www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare) is *not* to "socialize" medicine as many of his opponents label it to scare off voters. If you already have insurance, Obama's plan will help reduce your premiums while modernizing the current health care system. It will also make available a national health plan to all uninsured Americans similar to the plan available to members of Congress. The national health plan will provide comprehensive health care coverage with guaranteed eligibility at an affordable cost. His plan focuses on preventative medicine, disease management support and integration of care. He also presents plans for lowering costs through investment in electronic health information technology systems and increasing competition in the insurance and drug markets.
Obama's vision of health care for all Americans is extremely dear to my heart due to my personal life experience. In October 2006, I gave birth to a beautiful 6 lb. 15 oz. baby boy. He was perfect, except there was a mark that looked like a bruise on his lower right leg. It turned out to be an extremely rare, benign, but harmful vascular tumor. Within a month of his birth, he began bruising simply from crying. His leg began to swell and it was obvious he was in great pain. Doctors at UNC Hospital determined that the tumor was trapping his platelets and he would need to undergo steroid and chemotherapy treatments to reduce its size. Obviously, I wasn't able to work while my newborn was suffering through these treatments, so I had to quit my job to care for him. My husband is a law student and unable to work while in school, thus we not only lost our only source of income, we also lost our health insurance. Fortunately, my son qualified for North Carolina Medicaid, but my husband and I have had to pay outrageous amounts of money every month, with no income, to have minimal health insurance for both of us. Obama's plan will make sure that when families face such hardships as ours has, they don't lose everything.
The portableness of health care is often an issue which is overlooked. People who have rare diseases can't always find quality care in their state. Patients should be able to take their health care where they are able to get the most appropriate care. Once my son's condition was at its worst and we tried all of the traditional treatments for this type of tumor, we wanted him to be seen by world-renowned experts in the field at Boston Children's Hospital. After months of organizing and planning an appointment with them, we were denied coverage by North Carolina Medicaid because it was out of state. Luckily, my son's tumor began to unexpectedly get smaller just before we would have had to make some very critical and expensive decisions about his future care. We, unlike many other families, just barely avoided a situation that would have caused us to have to choose between having our son lose his leg (or lose him altogether) or lose our house. *Quality,* *affordable* and *portable* health care for all United States citizens is a moral issue that no politician should waiver on. There are many other ingenious details in Obama's health care plan that are pragmatic, innovative and cost efficient.
In a nutshell, I want Barack Obama to be president of the United States because I truly feel that he can lead our nation into a better tomorrow. Not only is he passionate and unwavering in his hunger to create a better world for the next generation, he has the intellect, common sense and fierce desire to do so.
