Last month we looked at how an unabashedly right-wing, anti-immigration Republican can win in a swing district with a pretty heavy Hispanic population. We're talking about New Mexico's gigantic 2nd district and multimillionaire extremist Stevan Pearce. The last Democrat who Pearce defeated, a one-term incumbent, was nearly as conservative as Pearce. There weren't many reasons for casual Democratic voters or leaning-Dem independents to bother coming out to vote for him-- and they didn't. He was a crap congressman who voted with the GOP on too many crucial issues. So he lost his seat. This time the Democrats seem prepared to run an actual progressive against Pearce, Leslie Endean-Singh who isn't shy about calling herself progressive and whose platform is chock full of progressive values and a progressive vision for her state and her neighbors. "When elected," she told me, "I plan on being a progressive member of the Democratic caucus who will fight to defend and strengthen the Affordable Care Act, protect our environment & natural resources and most importantly, work to create policies that will stimulate job creation in all corners of America."Her expertise is in the health care industry and we asked her to tell us how she explains the Affordable Care Act to the voters in NM-02. She agreed to tell us why she supports President Obama and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This is her guest post:
The day the President signed the ACA into law felt like a brand new day for me. As the wife of a rural New Mexico family physician, I have seen too many patients struggle to get the care they need to live healthy and productive lives. I have spent the past 15 years managing his practice and have witnessed up close how scarce quality medical care can be for far too many Americans.All too often, I have been frustrated by searching for a way to provide treatment for uninsured patients. I will never forget a female patient who qualified for worker’s compensation due to a back injury while working at a hardware store. While this injury left her greatly debilitated, her medical coverage would only cover the injury she sustained at work. Our medical practice did our best to treat her for other ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.Each time we would submit a claim for to her insurance company, the claim would come back DENIED! I completely understand how much of her medical ailments could have been treated through early preventative measures. Now I know she can get insurance for these pre-existing conditions, and even better, she will be have access to medical advice to prevent any future health issues. I have empathy for her and sleep a bit better at night. I can also sleep better knowing I don’t have to bicker as much with her insurance company.Of course, the problem won’t end there. We still have massive insurance companies that small family practices like mine have to work with. I believe that limiting the insurance companies to only retaining 20% of their premium payments is a massive and necessary change. I am glad that the President had the courage to send a message to the insurance executives; they can’t take million dollar compensations while denying life-saving tests and labs for patients.I am not the only progressive who will say that I would have preferred a single payer system, but there is no doubt that the ACA will create better and longer lives for so many Americans who, for too long, were forced to live without any medical insurance coverage.I will never forget my dear friend Fran, a pharmacist who worked with our practice. Fran was so full of life, and she always had this huge smile on her face. One day, a co-worker noticed Fran was unusually quiet and was having a hard time forming simple sentences and communicating. Fran dreaded going to see a doctor (even my husband), because she was uninsured. Dr. Singh would examine her and talk with her free of charge, but she did not have cash to pay for any expensive tests. To everyone’s shock, Fran had what we thought at first was a massive stroke, and was paralyzed on half of her body. By the time my husband got to examine her, it was far too late. Fran really had a massive tumor growing in her brain. Three months later, to our shock, she passed away. Fran lives on in our memory, but I wonder how many Americans like her have died from a lack of health care coverage.The list of casualties from a lack of quality health care is too high. I salute the President and Democratic leaders in Congress for passing the ACA. I am so proud that under the ACA, seniors already pay less for prescription drugs and young people can stay on their parents’ insurance policies until they are 26. While the ACA won’t cure every health issue our country faces, it will save countless lives and create better, healthy lives for future generations.I can promise you this-- when elected to Congress, I will fight with every ounce of my energy to prevent the pointless attacks being waged by Tea Party Republicans. My opponent, Rep. Steve Pearce, has voted to repeal the ACA every time it is brought to a vote. I am tired of Pearce wasting time on pointless political posturing when he could be focusing on working hard to support doctors and medical care, and create jobs for Southern New Mexico’s working families.
Pearce, one of the wealthiest Members of Congress, serves Big Oil first and foremost. And they serve him. Big Oil has contributed $1,521,201 to his political career (second only to "Oily Joe" Barton of Texas). Leslie can use some help-- but she's not going to get any from Big Oil or any Big Business. If you'd like to step up and help, this is her ActBlue page.By the way, Leslie is standing with her state's U.S. senator, Tom Udall, who was one of the two courageous Democrats to vote NO Wednesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Her statement:
"I stand with U.S. Senator Tom Udall in his opposition to military intervention as it stands in the current bill that recently passed in the Foreign Relations Committee. While there is no denying that human rights are being violated, the proposed military action is not the way to go. I am eager to see if any changes will be made as the bill heads to a full Senate vote."The United States should not intervene unless it further pursues coordinated action with other nations. We want to protect the helpless and innocent, but we must not make their situation much worse. Intervention may seem to be the moral thing to do, but it is not the practical thing to do. We must look at the long game-- which seems to be a civil war in Syria, which will not be ended quickly. Polls show that two thirds of the American people do not favor intervention in Syria. I agree with them, and do not believe it would assist the civilian population of Syria."