America only recognizes individual failure: 100/100
5 November, 2016 | Index
Dear Hillary Clinton,
Gerard Mclean here, from Englewood, Ohio. This is the one hundredth letter of one hundred I am writing you on health care; one for each day between your nomination and your election. The previous letters can be found in your USPS mailbox or online at 100HRC.com.
We have three days to go before Election Day, so someone at MSNBC didn’t quite count correctly when they stated there were a hundred days between your nomination and election. I should have fact-checked that, but no matter… we are here now.
It’s hard to believe the election cycle is almost over. I would liked to have heard more about Health Care policy from both candidates — especially you — as I still don’t know what you mean by “expanding the ACA.” I would like to think you will address the needs of us in the 50–64 entrepreneur demo who have worked almost an entire lifetime to provide health care for our ourselves and our families, but I am not hopeful. I think you will focus first on Millennials and older Boomers who are getting beat up with high costs. I believe we in the middle will continue to be last and forgotten.
In America, there is no such thing as systemic failure, only individual failure. If a person gets sick, unemployed, bankrupt… it is always his fault. But I know there is systemic failure with the demographic I am in. I know I am not the one failing my country. Yet somehow, I know that I will be blamed and shamed for my inability to keep paying outrageous premiums.
Maybe if I hustle and grind just a little bit more. Maybe if I refused to admit ageism is a real thing. Maybe if I just tried a little harder. Maybe if I….
Failing to provide SinglePayer, MedicareForAll, UniversalCare as an option in what we have been told is the most developed country in the world is no longer my personal failure. It is a systemic failure.
Please fix it.
Regards,
Gerard McLean
cc: Sen. Sherrod Brown
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