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If You Can Change the Room You Can Change the World: Obama Rallies the U of MD

Posted by: Zoe Bendixen on Sep 18, 2009

The morning was gray and the lines were long, but I wasn't complaining. At the end of that line was the chance to listen to President Obama give a speech to more 20,000 people gathered at the University of Maryland College Park on the need to enact health reform, and to enact that reform now.

With energizing remarks both humorous and inspiring, he tailored his message to the college-aged crowd:

Even if you have coverage, insurance companies today, they can drop it or water it down when you're sick and you need it the most. Or they can decide that they won't pay the full cost of your care and make you pay the rest of it out of pocket, even if it's thousands upon thousands of dollars. That's why more than one-third of all young adults-including those with insurance-have had trouble paying their medical bills. That's why one-fourth of all young adults are paying off medical debt. 

Obama spelled out the key points to remember in health care reform. Many of you have heard them before,but they bear repeating: If you like your insurance you can keep it. Health care reform will only serve to make it more effective. Health care reform will work to contain costs. If you don't currently have insurance, health care reform will provide an affordable way to obtain coverage.

Throughout the back and forth about the particulars of different versions of legislation and the confusion created when myths become accepted as fact, it's easy to forget what we're really working towards. At this rally, Obama made it clear:

At its core, that's what this issue is about.  Health care is about more than the details of a policy. It's about what kind of country you want to be. Young people, it's about what kind of country you want to be. We are the only nation on Earth that leaves millions of people without health insurance. We spend more than any country on Earth, and we're not any healthier for it. So this is about what kind of country you want your children to grow up in.