This morning President Obama is signing the first part of healthcare reform in front of a large audience in the East Room of the White House, and 11 year old Central District resident Marcelas Owens is in the audience and will be on the podium when the President’s leaves his signature on the legislation.
As we told you earlier in the month, Marcelas’s mother lacked health insurance and died of a treatable illness.
The President specifically mentioned Marcelas in his opening remarks, saying:
I’m signing it for 11 year old Marcelas Owens, who is also here. Marcelas lost his mom to an illness. She didn’t have insurance, and couldn’t afford the care she needed. So in her memory, he’s told his story across America so that no one else would have to go through what his family has experienced.
The next step in the healthcare saga is for the Senate to pass the reconciliation measure that contains various fixes and changes to the original legislation. That’s anticipated to happen late in the week, with the President signing the final piece into law before the end of the month.
Yeh Marcelas!
He high fived the President.
Gov. Christine Gregoire has directed that flags at all Washington state agency facilities be lowered to half-staff on Monday, March 22, in memory of U.S. Army Private First Class Erin L. McLyman, who died March 13 of injuries she suffered during a mortar attack in Iraq.
Hey FishStank – would you care to elaborate on that profound statement of yours, or is this one of those “drive-by” commentings that so enrich our lives?
Please explain your feeling of sadness for healthcare reform. I’ll give you bonus points if you can do it without using the word “Socialism,” and don’t forget to cite specific policy examples.
3-2-1-GO!
oops…actually the President high fived him!
can’t touch that….de da da da…de dum de dum…can’t touch that!
Congratulations Marcelas, you met the President and got a high five from him on helping pass one of this nation’s largest health reform act of the 21st century that will help millions, nobody can take that away from you!
Sorry FishBlank, you lose the bonus points. No surprise there, but hey thanks for playing.
OF COURSE you’re happy with your healthcare! You are employed and covered, I’m assuming. Am I correct?
Assuming I am, would you still be happy with the way your healthcare works if you lost your job this afternoon, or got diagnosed with cancer tomorrow and dropped by your insurance company?
And finally, since you neglected to cite any specific policies of the bill that make you sad, I’m afraid I must hereby banish you to the realm of the Great Internet Ignoramus. BYE BYE!
If this kid’s mom lost her job and lost her insurance, wouldn’t she have qualified for Medicaid? Why didn’t Medicaid cover the treatment she needed? So Obama’s answer is to make the entire health system just like Medicaid??
Seriously Fishtank. Use your own words.
Your selfish comment shows how little you know about this health care reform.
This is your attitude: Health care works for YOU. And YOU don’t want to pay for the homeless.
Good for you. But you are very ignorant. Please for a moment, think about other people besides yourself, and realize that there are thousands of hard-working citizens who have lost coverage completely or been denied by insurance companies for getting sick and for “preexisting conditions.” This plan will set up a pool for people who have previously been denied care.
So we applaud the Democratic Party. It takes a great amount of courage to simultaneously put aside the US Constitution, the laws of economics, the negative effects of a bill on the quality of health care in this nation, and the will of the people. Open the fridge and crack open a cold one, Democrats. You’ve earned it!
A favorite recent comment on a nurse friend’s page: “[People who complain about socialized medicine] know nothing about the history of epidemics. If you don’t take care of people, they will kill you…”
Of course, this bill did not create socialized medicine, it merely expanded insurance coverage.
Marcelas goes to my daughter’s school. I remember when I first heard about his campaign for health care reform a year or two ago. What a great lesson for everyone in the school, and even for those of us who are long out of school! Congratulations Marcelas! You earned a chance to be part of history and showed all of us the power of citizen activism. I wish you many more successes. We are all very proud of you!
Actually, I make below minimum wage and work approximately 70 hours a week. But hey, I just wanted to see what all of you here had to say. Over at our central area website, the one for those who are a little older and a little wiser, we do not use childish “name calling” when we disagree with someone. We don’t use mob mentality and attack, either. Oh, and we don’t hide comments that we don’t agree with…(Scott….) I was just doing a temperature check on your behavior, and it is as we all suspected.
Have fun guys! Oh, and enjoy the next two years….because that is all you will get! :)
We don’t editorially hide any comments. The hidden comments in this thread come from site members giving the comments a low rating.
It’s not even ‘a little wiser’ to be making below minimum wage, working approximately 70 hours a week, and still be opposed to a policy that will provide you and other hard-working financially-challenged folks with health care and insurance options. It’s the opposite of wise–and lacking compassion for your fellow citizens, as well. Which is kind of funny coming from someone who is apparently so thin-skinned about being slightly mocked on the intarweb and making a bugled accusation of censorship.
Great job, Marcelas! Your Mom would be proud of you. All America is proud of you. Except for those bad Republicans who are just mean. The good guys won and the bad guys lost. Thanks for helping the team win!
Marcelas’ mom worked for years as an employee at Jack in the Box and was consistently kept under the hours threshold to qualify for employer provided health insurance. She was promoted to a managerial position, finally qualified for Jack in the Box insurance, lost her job, became very ill, and passed away very suddenly. It happened so quickly that there was no time to coordinate Medicaid coverage, but I think that the real point is that ongoing access to care throughout the years that she did not qualify for insurance through her employer (i.e. preventative care) would have saved her life. The new bill is a giant step toward improving preventative care by extending coverage to individuals like Marcelas’ mom who are hard working and still fall through the cracks.
Go Marcelas!! He is my former neighbor and I remember hearing him speak about his mom at the health care rally at Pratt Park a year ago. She would be so proud!