The Shame in Breaking Records
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I am asked constantly what my personal views are on the healthcare reform debate happening in Washington. People ask me which senator's plan I like. I really have no interest in discussing the dollars and cents of healthcare or specific insurance plan options. I purposefully extricate myself from that conversation because I don't think 14-month-old Analeigha's heart is a political discussion.
Smart people are working on the legal and financial nuances of fixing healthcare in America. Others are creating a distraction for reasons I can't imagine. My best contribution is to bear witness to the true nature of the life-threatening struggle facing one in seven Americans and make them real to my television audience and the American people so our policymakers have the empathy of the electorate while making decisions. My hope is that we get to a day when I never have to watch an echocardiogram on a floor normally reserved for rodeo trade shows. My hope is that no one else ever has to break our record. While I am proud that the patients understood someone loved and cared about them and got them desperately needed care, I feel a sense of shame that Saturday had to happen at all. Do you?
Originally appeared in Huffington Post on September 28, 2009.
Learn more about the record-breaking health clinic
Smart people are working on the legal and financial nuances of fixing healthcare in America. Others are creating a distraction for reasons I can't imagine. My best contribution is to bear witness to the true nature of the life-threatening struggle facing one in seven Americans and make them real to my television audience and the American people so our policymakers have the empathy of the electorate while making decisions. My hope is that we get to a day when I never have to watch an echocardiogram on a floor normally reserved for rodeo trade shows. My hope is that no one else ever has to break our record. While I am proud that the patients understood someone loved and cared about them and got them desperately needed care, I feel a sense of shame that Saturday had to happen at all. Do you?
Originally appeared in Huffington Post on September 28, 2009.
Learn more about the record-breaking health clinic
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