When an injustice burns in your chest and you feel compelled to work passionately for change, the root of that injustice is often very personal. Such is the case for me when it comes to health care reform.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Kristin and I and our two young children lived for eight years without any health insurance. We were low-income, self-employed and our options for obtaining insurance were limited. We applied with the Iowa Farm Bureau, one of the few options available, and were turned down. So, we had little choice but to try to stay healthy, avoid trips to the doctor even when it might be advisable and avail ourselves of the hodge podge of limited low-cost medical services when absolutely necessary.

A “memorable” personal experience we had with Iowa’s failed health care system involved our daughter, Fionna, then age two. One Sunday in January, she broke her leg sledding. We rushed her to Broadlawns Medical Center. Incredibly, there was no doctor on duty that day to fix a broken leg! We hoped Mercy Hospital would accept us, since we live only four blocks away, but because we lacked insurance, daughter and mom were shipped by ambulance all the way to University Hospitals in Iowa City. This resulted in additional charges, loss of an entire week of work for Kristin, loss of half a week’s work for me and about 1,000 miles of driving where a four-block walk should have sufficed.

Let it be noted that the care we received at University Hospitals was excellent. Fionna, now 15, is one of the top runners on her school’s cross country team. But the tab for her care came to more than $5,000. Our family’s income was less than $15,000 that year, so there was obviously no way we could afford to pay the bill in its entirety, at least not immediately. We approached the local human services office about possible assistance, only to be informed that we weren’t poor enough to qualify for Title XIX!

Two years and countless phone calls, meetings and letters later, a payment plan was worked out, and we received some assistance with the bill. Dealing with the demeaning bureaucracy of the Department of Human Services proved to be one of the most frustrating and humiliating experiences of my life. I felt like a second-class citizen. In fact, I was a second-class citizen, as are 42 million Americans who currently lack insurance, including 253,000 Iowans. Another roughly 250,000 Iowans are under-insured, meaning nearly 20 percent of all Iowans lack adequate coverage.

The working poor, the middle class, children and the elderly are falling through the cracks of our failed health care system in droves. These cracks are more accurately described as chasms, and they grow wider every year. There is no reason why the wealthiest nation in the world — a nation that spends more per capita on health care than any other nation on earth — should be the only industrialized democracy without a health care program for all its citizens.

These personal experiences as an uninsured person confirmed in me the need for health care reform. As a lawmaker, meetings with countless Iowans who suffer due to lack of coverage — whose traumas make my own family’s past situation look tame — harden my resolve to do everything I can to fix this broken system.

While we can hope for reform at the federal level, we ought not to wait. Too many Iowans’ hopes, futures and lives hang in the balance. States like Maine, Vermont and Oregon are leading the charge at the local level, and Iowa should do the same.

The goal should be adequate, affordable health care for all. The bottom line is the elected officials of our state should not rest until this goal is met.

Indeed, if a majority of Iowa lawmakers had to walk a mile in the shoes of the uninsured and under-insured, Iowa would have a comprehensive, functional health-care system in no time at all.

Rep. Ed Fallon, D-Iowa

Executive Director

1,000 Friends of Iowa