Yesterday while I was going door to door I spoke with many people who were more than willing to share their concerns about life in 2012. Between now and November I will continuing to talk with people in the district and I will share some of these things with you. Although I am not going to use the names of these individuals, I will share their concerns because they are as real as they get.
Yesterday I spoke with a woman in the the 38th District. When I asked her what concerns she had that were affecting her life she told me that she has a serious health concern that she had been advised was reason for her to stop working. She was told that she could go on disability and because of the seriousness of her health, she would be accepted quickly. She has 4 children and both she and her husband are working. Neither of them have health insurance through their employer.
Between the two of them, they are managing barely to pay the rent, utilities and provide food for their kids.
Although her health problem is enough of a threat to potentially kill her, she is afraid to stop working now. She told me that because of the threat of benefits being slashed she was afraid that they would not be able to make it on disability. She said she had always worked and that she had no desire to be on assistance but that she knew her days were numbered at her job because of her health. One fear she had was that if she took her doctors advice and applied for disability, it would mark her as a health risk and she might never be able to work again. On the other hand, if her health continued to deteriorate, she might lose her ability to provide for her family.
She is stuck between a rock and a hard place and for her there is no solution.
In Missouri, problems like hers and the health needs of millions of other uninsured workers isn't even being discussed by our state legislature. They will tell you that the poorest of the poor are covered. But they avoid even addressing the estimated 900,000 + people who are not on assistance and cannot afford health insurance. They will work like the devil to defeat a national health care policy, but they haven't any solutions of their own. I think we owe it to ourselves and the people of Missouri to stop politicizing our problems and start talking about them realistically and working for real solutions. "I don't care" is not a solution and it is not responsible to Missouri. Regardless of how tough these problems are, there are too many people affected to ignore them.
-Kevin Morgan
Candidate for State Representative 38th District Missouri
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