Never Underestimate the Power of Your Voice!!

By Joanna Mechlinski

Unless you've been living under the proverbial rock, you'll have noticed there's a lot in the news about healthcare lately. Politicians argue daily about this or that plan; the average citizens simply worry about their needs being met. What happens if you have a serious condition and can't get the doctors or medications you need to survive? Living with chronic illness is scary enough without adding monetary fears to the mix.

Unfortunately, a lot of healthcare cuts are made without looking at real people. Someone at the top is tasked with saving money; he or she then looks at the big picture. Chances are, they have never had to struggle with serious illness, either personally or with a loved one. Thus it's much easier to look at things theoretically – at how they “should” be. Yet as we all know, things rarely work out the way we think they might. Life is simply full of too many obstacles and variables. Medications that “should” work for a particular illness sometimes do not; other times, unexpected secondary complications may develop. An insurance company guideline that sounds good on paper may not make as much sense in practice.

For this reason, it's crucial that we all share our stories. We need to put faces to rare diseases. We need to show the world just what a real person has to go through – not just the symptoms of the disease itself, but also with bureaucracy in the fight for basic existence. It’s just not right.

If calling or writing letters to politicians sounds too daunting, there’s still a lot you can do. Social media is a wonderful tool for spreading awareness – you can join existing campaigns, or start your own. Even posting pictures or facts with the appropriate hashtags can be a huge help. We’ve seen proof via viral campaigns like the ice bucket challenge, raising awareness for ALS, that social media can truly have an impact.

What’s the point? you may wonder. What do the Powers That Be really care about one little person…if my voice even makes it to them?

There’s a great quote by the Japanese writer Ryunosuke Satoro: “Individually we are one drop. Together we are an ocean.” There is really no other way to put it. Each of us may feel insignificant in the fight against something so enormous as healthcare reform; but put all our voices together and we’re a force to be reckoned with.