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In reply to the discussion: Ryan confronted by cancer patient who says ObamaCare saved his life [View all]PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,848 posts)gone to school in yesterday's clothes, those who have never had to choose between paying the mortgage or paying the electric bill and buying food for their children, those people haven't a clue. If they haven't had to make those decisions, if they haven't actually gone hungry, if they haven't juggled bills, trying to figure out which to pay so that the lights or the heat won't be turned off, then they haven't a single clue what it's like.
I've been poor, although I've never had to decide which bills to pay. My experience of poverty was more of the deciding how much to pay for groceries compared to buying clothes for school. Yes, I have gone hungry on occasion, and I did get dental care through a Catholic charity, and since I had serious dental issues, I am forever grateful, and for years I directed my charitable contributions go to that specific charity. I've been poor enough that I've scraped up change to pay for three dollars worth of groceries. I've been poor enough that I couldn't afford a telephone. And even then, I had the good fortune to be young and healthy enough that I didn't really have to worry about health care. Plus, at the time, I had a job with health care coverage. I recall the time I did go to a doctor for some problem, and when I got the bill, a whopping $64 (a bit over $300 today) I was completely overwhelmed, but the secretary in my company's office helped me out, and I only needed to pay $16, an amount I could afford.
Here's the point: I personally have had various challenges, but I have never been unable to pay for whatever. I've never been so overwhelmed by expenses of any kind that I couldn't manage. But I've been close enough to the edge to have a lot of sympathy for those who are overwhelmed. I currently owe more on my Visa than I'm comfortable with, but I can still manage. It's easy for me to imagine having that exact same bill and not having a clue how I'd pay for it.
So, okay. We can't cover the Visa bills, but we sure as hell can collectively cover health care.