TRANSCRIPT: (Video)
To Governor Branstad, living without health care is something to ridicule, something to joke about.
What happens when Governor Branstad is asked about helping Iowans too poor to afford health insurance?
He starts talking about health care savings accounts, about increasing co-pays, and about people getting drunk at open bars at weddings.
Governor, if you can’t afford health insurance, making health care more expensive will not help.
The problem is that Iowa’s Governor has no idea what it is like to be unemployed or to work for the minimum wage.
He’s been on the state payroll for almost all of his adult life. His family has never had to live without health insurance. That’s the plain and simple truth.
It’s not the Governor’s fault that he apparently has no idea what it is like to live in poverty. But, it is his fault that he is failing to help Iowans who do.
I wish Governor Branstad would listen to some of the Iowans who have testified about what it is like to live without health insurance.
One retired Iowa teacher came to Room 22 and cried while describing her adult daughter’s life without mental health care.
Governor Branstad doesn’t know these people.
They aren’t foreign business investors.
They aren’t campaign contributors.
They don’t live in fancy houses on the west side of Des Moines.
They are not living the life of Rielly.
But they are still Iowans, and, Governor Branstad, you are just as much their governor as the rich investors and business people you surround yourself with.
Let me tell you the story of one of these people.
This is someone I know very, very well.
As a young woman in her mid-twenties, she was going through a difficult time. She was getting divorced, and she didn’t have much money.
She lived in a small Iowa town. No matter how hard she tried, the only job she could find was a part time job.
She was able to make ends meet, but just barely. After paying for rent, gas, and groceries, there was nothing left.
Governor, like many part time and full time Iowa jobs, her job did not include health insurance.
Now this young woman developed a medical problem.
It was a painful, painful problem. Repeated doctor visits, visits she paid for out of pocket, did not solve the problem. She needed to have an operation.
That operation was going to cost $3,000. That’s a good chunk of money now, and it was a whole lot more back then.
Governor Branstad, this young woman put off having that operation. She lived and worked in the pain for several, difficult months.
Finally, she was able save up enough money to afford the operation and her recovery went well, she got a full time job, she remarried, she had children, and eventually, she was elected to the Iowa Senate.
Yes, Governor Branstad, I was one of those people you feel so free to laugh about. Some poor shlump living without health insurance.
Guess what, Governor, there are tens of thousands of Mary Jo Wilhelms in Iowa right now, living without health insurance. Each with their own story.
Some are in their 20’s, some in their 40’s. Many of them are taking care of children. Most of them are working. Some have several jobs and still can’t afford health insurance.
Governor Branstad, instead of talking about free bars, cash bars, the failure of politicians in Washington DC, let’s talk about Iowans.
Iowans that deserve to have access to affordable health care.
You are the Governor of Iowa. Act like it.
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