Dear Mr Obama,

In 1982, I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease. Although radiation treatments successfully put the disease in remission, I was told that it has a tendency to come back, so, I knew that health insurance would be of critical importance to me. I received my Ph.D. in 1995, in Adult and Continuing Education, along with a university teaching award and good start on that publishing thing. It came as a shock to me that there were virtually no adult education jobs to even apply for in academia or outside it that had health insurance attached to them. After 6 fruitless years of looking for work in my field, in 2001, Airtran Airways held an open house here and I took a job as Customer Service Agent because they offered health benefits. After the company left in 2003, I was fortunate enough to find work in my field as an administrator of academic and professional tests to adults and the job included health coverage. However, the insurance premiums were so high, I could not afford to work there. I am now working as an Assistant Manager at Walgreen’s.

Thank you for making health insurance this high a priority of your administration. Every day I think how much our society would benefit if all people were able to access health insurance no matter where they worked and so were able to contribute all they were prepared to through their education or innate talent.
Sincerely,
Mary Anne