It is so easy to blow off health care reform if you are healthy. But countless others and I stare at our inevitable demise as we feel left to die.
I am 62 and every day I grow weaker. I have congenital myasthenia gravis syndrome and there is no cure. I choke often and I cannot get up without help if I fall. I cannot climb stairs at all. I cry internally as I am left to slowly deteriorate exteriorly as people turn their backs on me.
But I want to remain as independent as possible for as long as possible and so does everyone else who shares this burden with me. An estimated 40% of the United States population has a chronic disease, so why are we being abandoned?
I believe that it is our right as American citizens that have done what we could for our world to have a chance to survive, to live. I have applied for long-term health care insurance five times and have been shut down five times. Even the people at AARP, whose sole purpose is to help people over fifty years old live our lives as we see fit, shut me and countless others down.
Please, people of Pennsylvania, think about me and the millions of others that are and will be fighting this battle against our fatal diseases. We cannot win this downhill battle without your genuine support.
VINCENT J. PETROSINO, Harrisburg
