Imperfect Bill Still Must Be Passed

In the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers declared that all Americans, indeed all of humanity, have inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The recent wrangling over the proposed health care bill is sorrowfully ignorant of this central tenet to the American cause. These inalienable rights, especially to life and the pursuit of happiness, should also mean that people are provided with a reasonable chance to enjoy them.

Yet, too many people — millions of them — are not provided with that chance because their premiums are too high or their pre-existing conditions will cost insurance companies too much money. Every year, according to the American Journal of Public Health, 45,000 Americans who lack insurance die and many of these deaths would be preventable if these people had access to affordable treatment via insurance. That number is far greater than the number of Americans who sacrificed their lives to secure these inalienable rights during the Revolutionary War.

Health care, a guarantor of the right to life, must be provided to the millions of Americans who want but cannot afford health care if we are to say that we still hold those truths to be self-evident. The current bill, imperfect though it may be, still represents the best efforts of our Senate to ensure those rights for all Americans. It opens the road to further progress and is worthy of passage.

Originally printed as a letter to the editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Click here to view.