Letter to the Fifth Circuit re: the ACA

Dear Justices.  I am writing you today because I do not know, truthfully, what to do nor how I as an American citizen and lover of my country can express an opinion that

could have some thoughtful influence on the case that is, I believe, due to come before you soon.

Perhaps, it is my political philosophy I have honed for decades trying to weigh what rightful powers government can and should possess in a free society.  I have dedicated many hours of thought into this question, perhaps, being slightly influenced by my own circumstances and by my father's love of this nation, its history and most especially, even though he was Republican, his love for Franklin Roosevelt.  Although I was born during the Truman administration my father's thoughts of FDR influenced the trajectory of my own political thought.  Yes, I am progressive on most policies but I am not progressive because I think government should simply hand out money to all but because I believe as FDR did that government's proper role is to help its people most especially in extreme social circumstances like the Great Depression or to avoid living in abject poverty when our bodies fail us and we grow old having no money to secure our lives. 

In my own life I was one of the last who contracted polio six months before the vaccine came out.  It has had in my senior years some dire impacts.  In my youth I remember when my father, a small business owner, could not get insurance for me because, yes, I had a preexisting condition.  Polio has been a life long preexisting condition.  The effects of the virus are not only horrifically impactful to one's body it is also very expensive to address it in one's entire life.  One long leg brace amounts now to about $5,000.  There were and are other accoutrements of this malady including surgeries, casts, crutches, braces, and much more.  In my later years I have fallen so many times including three femur fractures and one surgery for it that I thank God every day for the blessing of Medicare and the blessing of living in a country where I can get help.

My plight is shared now by millions who will face the loss of their healthcare entirely if the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare is struck down.  I believe the Texas Court was in great error in its opinion and I hope and pray fervently that this Court will come to a different conclusion and save the ACA.  Why on God's earth someone so cruelly and without empathy would deny millions health care and ensure that many will die without it I do not know.

Therefore I ask you, no I beg you, to consider my simple argument when deciding this case.  Without healthcare people die -- many people die.  Without healthcare even those nearest and dearest to lawyers, judges or to just the average person will die without healthcare.  Healthcare today is unduly expensive and is costing more and more each day. People are signing up for the ACA and it has been saving lives.   As the great orator and my hero FDR said:

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."

 

 I hope this email can be sent to the justices on the Fifth Circuit who may decide the fate of this important legislation.

Thank you for your consideration.