Dear Editor,

When Wall Street collapsed, taxpayers were told we had to support a $700 billion bailout for the crooks that caused the collapse in the first place. Now middle class American working families need our broken health care system fixed.

Millions of us are struggling to pay health care costs and make ends meet. But wait – some in Congress are saying we “can’t afford” health care reform. That does not make sense to me – in fact, I find their argument downright insulting. Help the fat cats and cronies out, but give the finger (and nothing else) to the American people.

Nine years ago I donated a kidney to keep my beloved husband alive. Thank goodness he is doing well. We have medical insurance through my employer, but it would vanish should I lose my job.

Many people are not aware that kidney transplants and dialysis costs are covered by Medicare, no matter your age, race, income, etc. But costs for the immune suppressing drugs needed to keep the patient from rejecting the organ are not. In our case, if we had to pay the $2,000-plus per month prescription costs, it would have bankrupted us.

We would have lost our home and I would probably be a widow today. It breaks my heart and makes my blood boil to think about all those people who have to face such choices every day.

And yet the ditto heads and ignoramuses who listen to the insurance companies and Right Wing are shouting down honest citizens at town hall meetings and trying to scare us into believing that health care reform is bad. I agree with President Obama – we can’t afford not to fix health care!

Congress really dropped the ball sixteen years ago when it failed to enact true health care reform. More and more Americans have suffered since then. No more delays, no more excuses, no more b.s. – let’s get this done right and right now!

Janet Hays
West Seattle