Insurance canceled last year for the second time the month following my surgery, so no follow-ups after the first three weeks. Now I'm employed, so I have insurance. As good as what I had? No. But pre-existing condition doesn't matter. More costs to me, but for a life-threatening disease, I'll pay as long as I'm able to.

Children can be carried on these plans until they are able to get a job. Children and young adults with insurance can only be a positive thing.

I live in a state that has said it will not opt in to some of the better parts. What a joke, in a state with an MD as governor, and an underfunded medicaid.

But it is what it is.

Getting some definite expiration dates on my body has created a different set of motivations: these are outward-directed... helping to create a certain ethical foundation for my son, working with groups I support, and working against groups or agendas I do not.

I want to see, or to help establish a way, to see a Democratic congress in DC in 2014. I want to see an administration that includes Robert Reich and Bernie Sanders in elected or Secretarial level positions, and a swing to the left on reforming this behemoth to include re-importation, some low-cost high-maintenance coverage for poor people, and maybe even jobs for the unemployed in heath care sponsored by the Federal Government to make more of a difference.

I dream of a day when people don't get physically worse because of insurance companies and costs. I don't care if it doesn't benefit me, so long as it occurs. It's time to bring liberal policies back. It's time to take the discourse back.

Last week I heard Joe Scarborough excoriating Senator Mendez on his uneducated and incorrect statements to Elizabeth Warren on the 2nd Amendment. I get tired of uncritical thought by conservatives, so many times Joe's a breath of fresh air.

I'd like to see discourse opened with governors like Chris Christie on how to improve the measure. Sure, I will disagree with much of what he proposes, but he at least thinks, and may have alternatives that aren't completely unpalatable.

After this ramble, a quick closing. The health care plan has done wonders. If people have objections to it, especially governors, don't take it out on the populace because you don't like it. Help the least of us, and pay it forward.

Helping the sick, the poor, the elderly, the dying, and the children should be something anyone can adopt. Forcing those categories to beg, or to put jars up at gas stations for donations? That it still must be done shows one of the many flaws in the system. Let's fix it, not abandon it.