In honor of the six-month anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, our friends at MomsRising invited moms, dads, grandparents, bloggers, community leaders, government officials, policy experts and others to share their thoughts and feelings about health reform. They received an overwhelming response to their invitation. Here are a few of the many interesting blog entries:
Kerri Marrone Sparling, who chronicles her life with diabetes on the very touching Six Until Me blog wrote:
“I don’t know enough about the health care reform bill to speak eloquently about the details. I am only exposed to what the media shows me, and what my research procures, and what pages of the bill I’m actually able to pour through and understand. And I know that talking politics on the blog (just like talking religion) can be a very tough topic, because PWD (people with diabetes) have so many varying opinions and stances on these issues. But I’m a person with diabetes. And I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful that this could be the beginning of diabetes not dictating my insurability. I’m hopeful that people with diabetes will have the option to work in fields that inspire them, not just ones that insure them.”
Lisa Shapiro of First Focus wrote: “As we mark the six-month anniversary of the passage of health reform, families have much to celebrate today as several key provisions of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act go into effect for children. While there are a wide array of opinions on both sides of the aisle on the new law – from those that say health reform goes too far to those who lament that it doesn’t go far enough, the impact for children cannot be disputed. Children and families will be better off today and for many years to come because of a long list of new child-focused policies that were included as part of national health reform.”
Laura Tellado who lives with spina bifida and created the Holdin’ Out for a Hero blog wrote:
“Nearly six months ago, I sat in front of a desktop PC with tears brimming in my eyes. I was watching history unfold before me, when Pres. Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. I had been waiting for this for years, and now it seemed surreal that it would finally come to pass. Maybe it seemed surreal to me because it seemed that it had taken forever to accomplish. Or maybe because it felt like my needs and the needs of millions of other Americans were being heard and understood.”
Please check out what others had to say and leave your own thoughts in the comments section.