A Worthy Successor
The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. – Margaret Chase Smith
I wrote in a previous blog post (Heroes Great and Small – Heroes All) that for health reform to pass we would need “people willing to challenge the status quo and with the courage to risk their careers for the greater good to show up soon. And when they do, as advocates and citizens, we need to be there to help them!”
Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) was the latest “hero” to step up when she broke with her party to vote for the Senate Finance Committee health reform bill. It is fitting and perhaps no coincidence that Sen. Snowe, like Sen. Margaret Chase Smith before her, represents Maine in the United States Senate. It was Senator Smith who in 1950 was the first to speak out in the Senate against Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his tactics of innuendo, smear and guilt by association. To no one’s surprise, certainly not Senator Snowe’s, outrage and insults have already begun to rain down on her for her support of health reform.
This is the time for health center and health reform advocates in Maine to not just thank Senator Snowe, but to visibly support her, not just with an email or phone call, but with a letter to the editor or in person when she is back home. Now that the bill is out of the Finance Committee, Senator Snowe’s Maine Colleague, Senator Susan Collins, who was a champion in obtaining over $2 billion in stimulus funding for health centers, will have an opportunity to be a heroine and should be encouraged to do so.
For those advocates not from Maine, now is the time to publicly thank your Members of Congress who have stepped up for health centers and to encourage those who haven’t yet stepped up to become heroes. As the battle and the rhetoric become more heated (and they will) it is more important than ever that you let your Senators and Representatives know that you will support them if they step up for health centers and for every American who lacks access to health care.
Policy is not made in a vacuum in this country. It is born (and dies) in a political environment. Representative Jim Cooper, a conservative Tennessee Democrat, told the New York Times ”The lobbyists are winning”. I say – only if we at the grassroots let them. If we expect Members of Congress to act with courage, then WE need to ACT with the courage of our convictions as well!
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I live in Washington state, but most of my family lives in Maine. I was there only a couple of weeks ago visiting my mother and family. She has the beginnings of dementia and is just beginning to start up on some very expensive medicines. She, like so many senior citizens refused to sign up for the Part D with Medicare when it was first brought up. (“Too much trouble. I don’t understand why things have to change. It is alright the way it is. I don’t care. I’m too old for this.”)
As an Outreach Worker in a Community Health Care setting, I am painfully aware of the importance of such programs. Last January I had a long discussion with my brother (and wife) about how to put her on the ‘new’ program. Unfortunately, they had waited too long and so hopefully now, this November, it will happen. While I was in Maine, I was able to go to a pharmacy and get one of her meds down to half price (a savings of 70.00)but no one else there (family) understood how to do this simple act.
My mother is not the only one who needs patience, kindness, and help in getting these types of programs sorted and figured out. Without our type of clinic in the United States our families will continue to struggle and be uninformed. We are an important resource for so many. Our job is not easy, but it is very important.
Cutting our ‘air supply’ off will only worsen things for the population that really needs us. Being part of the working poor is difficult at best, but to be cut off of all help is ludicrous, inefficient, and self righteous on behalf of the wealthy.
After losing the CHC in Sumner, Washington last March, it was indeed a great disadvantage for a whole community and beyond. We served a large population of east Pierce County. We were able to absorb some of the patients into our other clinics, but for the most part they prefer to stay in their own community. Some of them will end up using the ER more than they should, but they are no happier than we, to lose Sumner CHC. Hopefully, some day we will have the funding to return there.
If this sounds a bit hopeless, it is because that is how it feels right now. And this is why we need to help Americans help themselves, by keeping such wonderful small clinics open and in business with help from the federal and state resources.
Sincerely, Toni MacDougall