As I’ve written before, health care to me is a public good and not a strictly private one. I also have a strong opinion of what a just medical system looks like, based on John Rawls’ Theory of Justice, about which I’ll blog in the future.

I’m writing this because of something I just read. I sometimes peruse the “personal finance” forum at Reddit. Below, is a post that I think explains why access to health care is important and that, at times, bad stuff happens pretty randomly (original link here). In fact, it can happen to any of us.

My mom was out of work for six months due to what we thought were surgery complications, but turned out to be colorectal cancer that was never caught and is now stage 4. She was also terminated today since she won’t be able to go back to work for the foreseeable future. I’m trying to figure out how to navigate COBRA, Medicaid (Missouri Healthnet), disability benefits, if cancer even qualifies as such… and I’m at a total loss. Her insurance stops covering her at the end of this month, and she’s in the middle of chemo and needs home health, so unfortunately we don’t really have any more than two days to figure this out. Now what? She lives in Missouri, mid 50s, two children living at home, one working adult, the other in high school.