Earlier this month in Florida, I met Esther Segura, a nurse who spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve as an operating room technician. She’s spent this year juggling raising two teenage daughters as a single mom and working on the front lines fighting against this pandemic.
Esther loves helping people — she says it’s in her blood. And she loves our country. But she’s worried about it, because she believes our president doesn’t respect people like her.
She’s seen first-hand how he has failed to protect the workers on the front lines of a pandemic that disproportionately impacts Black and brown Americans — who are 3 times as likely to be infected, and are dying at twice the rate of white Americans.
In his own words, President Donald Trump knew that COVID-19 was a dangerous and communicable disease. It’s on tape. But he did nothing. He claims that he hid this life-saving information from the American people because he didn’t want us to panic — but the truth is, he panicked, with tragic results. He failed to protect Americans.
And now, in the middle of a pandemic, his lawyers are in the U.S. Supreme Court trying to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, increase health care costs, and strip health insurance protections from 8 million Floridians with pre-existing conditions. If they succeed, and you have long-term side effects from COVID-19 or other illnesses like asthma or diabetes, your insurance company could once again jack up your premiums or deny you coverage.
This is deadly serious: President Trump is trying to take your health care away during a pandemic. And it’s part of a bigger pattern: We simply can’t trust this president to care.
Best in Moderation
Article URL : https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2020/10/19/im-joe-biden-and-floridians-heres-my-plan-column/