The View From Your Sickbed

A reader writes:

A personal story: my girlfriend has a tumor on her ovary and no health insurance. She's taking her last class for her nursing degree, but since she's not going to school full-time, she's not elligible for insurance through the school. She has two jobs bartending, neither of which offer health benefits, working nights so she can spend her days studying and taking care of her six year old daughter (who thankfully is on her father's insurance).

I don't know a person who works harder than her and who gives so much of herself to others.

It is a travesty that the country she lives in--the richest in the world--can't provide her and people like her decent affordable health insurance. Arguments over funding abortion are trivial in comparison to the magnitude of health care problems facing millions of people every day in this country. As a supporter of reproductive rights, I'll happily cede that ground to the anti-abortion zealots and fight another day, if it means people in the same boat as my girlfriend are able to have access to the care they need.