Today’s Diabetes Blog Week prompt:
Share an interest, hobby, passion, something that is YOU. If you want to explore how it relates to or helps with diabetes you can. Or let it be a part of you that is completely separate from diabetes, because there is more to life than just diabetes!
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I feel like I’ve been writing outside the lines all week. So, I guess I won’t stop now.
What is my passion?
Policy.
I’m a policy wonk.
I believe that politics matter because government can do good for the people—or it can do bad.
My voice and my vote is how I influence my government to do good.
Politics and government are difficult subjects to bring up in polite company. Especially these days when the country if so polarized and seems to be experiencing collective PTSD over the legitimacy of those in power.
Why is policy so important to me?
Maybe it’s because I’m the grandchild of immigrants who came to the US to escape a bloody revolution.
Maybe it’s because members of my family experienced poverty and that poverty was relieved by government programs.
Maybe it’s because I worked on education reform in the hope that my children would receive a quality public education.
Maybe because deep down I’m an idealist whose heart is still stirred by these words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
What does this have to do with diabetes?
Right now? Everything.
In Washington we have a Congress hell-bent on repealing the ACA (a.k.a. Obamacare) and replacing it with tax breaks for the rich.
In the pharma industry we have companies who one week brag to their investors how profitable their insulin business is and the next week invite diabetes patient advocates to call out PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) for price increases.
We have people turning to crowdfunding sites to pay for their medication. And when that fails, their friends and family update their pleas to pay for a funeral.
It shouldn’t be this way. That’s why policy matters to me. And that’s why I advocate for health care affordability and access.
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Corinna, I thought once I wanted to be a policy wonk. Thankfully I chose a different path. I would have been terrible at it. But I am thrilled you are and will help our community with this detail.
Thanks Rick.
I hope that people realize that they can still raise their voice and advocate without getting lost in the weeds. You don’t have to be an expert on every minute detail. But you do need to be well informed on the issues and where you stand.