During the Presidential debate last night Barack Obama firmly communicated why he thinks healthcare is not a privilege but a right. Citing a difficult moment in his own life, Obama spoke of his mother who, when diagnosed with cancer, found herself fighting her insurance company to prove her sickness was not a “pre-existing condition.” “In a country as wealthy as ours,” Obama said, “for us to have people who are going bankrupt because they can’t pay their medical bills…there’s something fundamentally wrong with that.”

Obama continued on the topic, identifying what he sees as the key problems with healthcare in America: exponentially expensive premiums, rising costs of co-payments and deductibles, and barriers that prevent many from accessing basic health insurance. “We have a moral commitment,” he said, “in addition to an economic imperative, to do something.” Obama asserted that all Americans should have the kind of health insurance that he and Senator McCain enjoy because they are federal employees. With regards to the McCain healthcare plan, Obama pointed to an oft-overlooked aspect—taxing employer-based healthcare benefits —saying with McCain’s plan “one hand giveth, and one hand taketh away.”

–Marissa Colón-Margolies

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