Planned Parenthood | Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

September 30, 2009 11:34:34

This week kicks off a regular column in which we feature one of Planned Parenthood’s great volunteers. Rachel has been volunteering with Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota for over two years, first as a program evaluator and assistant for our education programs, and now as an assistant in our public affairs and volunteer programs. She’s been a huge help to so many of our programs, and now, the energy she seems to find between raising a young son and working on her PhD in microbiology to rally for health care reform is truly inspirational. Thanks, Rachel! And now, in her words…

The face of health care reform

Recently I had the privilege to see and hear a man who is one of the most significant figures of our time during his visit to Minneapolis. As a group, Planned Parenthood volunteers and staff held signs and stood wearing bright pink to support President Obama’s plan for health care reform.  President Obama champions women’s rights, education, scientific discovery and doesn’t believe that those who are worst off in this country should be left behind. 
 
His plan would help us ensure some fundamental rights with regards to access to our amazing health care system: the right to coverage regardless of preexisting conditions, the right to coverage of your illness once you get sick, the right to coverage of preventative care, and importantly, coverage for all children in America.  I could go on and on about rights we should have as the richest nation in the world.
 
These rights are especially important to me, and from what I’ve heard from both liberal and conservative friends, we agree on these.  The reason I support health care reform isn’t because I lack coverage - I’ve actually been very lucky to be covered through work - but because of the lessons I learned growing up.

When I was seventeen, my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer. Along with all the other events of my senior year, I spent a lot of time escorting my mother to doctors’ appointments and fighting with our insurance, trying to get them to cover her chemotherapy and surgery. As a seventeen then eighteen year-old I was, sadly, no match for them. I was an emotional teenager who was watching her mother waste away. Thankfully, our grandmother was around to help my sister and me work through this terrible time.

We found out later, after my mom’s initial surgery, that she was diagnosed with stage four cancer and given six months to live. I can only speculate on what would have happened if the cancer had been caught earlier. I do know that she waited for months, feeling sick, waiting for our new insurance to kick in, before being seen. I know that she was screened years before for colon cancer and told to continue with screening. Unfortunately, our insurance was tied to our family business and did not cover those screenings and often changed based on cost, resulting in long waiting periods for coverage.

So when the story broke that President Obama would be coming to Minneapolis to talk about health care reform, I knew I had to be there. Coverage of basic health care screenings, and ensuring people are not disqualified for a preexisting condition, dropped from their insurance for becoming ‘too sick,’ and not having a cap on coverage should be part of being an American citizen. We know that preventative care saves lives and saves money over time.
 
These are also all reasons why I volunteer for Planned Parenthood.  I’ve experienced so much in life and yet been so lucky, from being a teen parent, helping my younger sister finish high school after our mother passed away, taking care of and watching a parent die too early, the many lessons taken from teaching high school science and now as a PhD student in microbiology, but the most important one of all was learning to be a mother.  Because of all these lessons and experiences, I want to support women, educate teens and ensure women’s rights.  Planned Parenthood works tirelessly to ensure women have access to health care, teens are educated about sexual health and that women have the right to choose. I’ve been lucky enough to volunteer in all of these realms and work with some amazing people at Planned Parenthood. 
 
We may not all agree on health care reform, but don’t forget the human faces behind it. Please keep all this in mind when talking to your representatives, friends and family about health care reform.

(photo 1: Rachel at President Obama's health care reform rally in Minneapolis. Photo 2: Rachel and her mother) 
 

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