Thursday, December 9, 2010

Elizabeth Edwards health care hero

Elizabeth Edwards, health care hero : Many of the obituaries and remembrances of Elizabeth Edwards published over the past few days have left out a critical piece of legacy: her work on health reform.

After her cancer diagnosis in 2004, Edwards campaigned constantly for comprehensive health reform. She revealed the devastating flaws in conservative reform proposals that sought “free market solutions” to our health care crisis. As she noted on many occasions, there is no business incentive for insurance companies to cover someone with breast cancer.

Edwards not only exposed insurance company abuses and conservative fallacies, she also emphasized the terrible damage caused by medical debt. She spoke out on health reform as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. CAP has one of the best tributes to Edwards, highlighting her importance to the health care debate.

Perhaps it’s inevitable that most people measuring the arc of Elizabeth Edwards’ life will judge it a tragedy. It was certainly filled with adversity. But she repeatedly turned affliction into activism. And she lived to see comprehensive health reform enacted. Any eulogy to Eliabeth Edwards should mention one of her greatest achievements: expanding health insurance to 32 million Americans.

Related Post:

Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)