Guaranteed Healthcare

By Donna Smith
Community organizer, California Nurses Association/NNOC

CHICAGO -- Last week when I was getting ready to drive to Denver for the DNC convention and related activities, I got a couple of messages that are still weighing on my heart and mind today.  And despite all the grand displays of our greater aspirations, I am at a loss for real answers for two of the bravest women I know.

Julie Pierce wrote to me and shared her frustration in feeling that her family's story has already been forgotten.

"It is a shame that the rest of us in 'SiCKO' don't get to share our stories during a time that is so crucial to our country's future," Julie said.

I suspect others among those featured in the film feel the same way.  Julie's husband Tracy died while still in his 30s from kidney cancer after being denied the bone marrow transplant that might have saved him. And because Julie will raise her son alone and will never be able to forget the death sentence the for-profit healthcare system imposed on her husband, she has a hard time understanding that the rest of the world moves on to the next tragedy, the next photo op, the next compelling video, the next dead patient...