Affordable care leads to more stable society

Having affordable health care creates safety and stability in our society. The concept is “the plight of my neighbor impacts me.” Concentrated urban areas, which tend to be liberal, understand this. States with large open spaces, which tend to be libertarian, often don't.

To illustrate: If you are a New Yorker and your neighbor's apartment is on fire, this impacts your finances and safety in a direct way. If you live on a Montana ranch, your next-door neighbor may be five miles away. If they have a fire, it doesn't impact your pocketbook in the same way.

In terms of health care, when your uninsured neighbor goes to the emergency room because they can't afford regular checkups, your premiums go up.

When your uninsured neighbor's child goes to school with the H1N1 flu because the parents couldn't afford the vaccination, the school closes for a week, impacting your child's education and your pocketbook as you pay for extra baby sitters that week.

Here in Cedar Rapids, it's easy to dismiss this as an urban problem. However, as the surrounding cities like Chicago continue to gentrify, it pushes the low-income population to towns where the cost of living is more reasonable. Places like Cedar Rapids.

As our population grows and space decreases, we will come to terms with this concept that “my neighbor's plight impacts me” and see that when your neighbor has health care, it creates a safer, more stable society for you as well.

Jason Snell

Cedar Rapids