This Senator Isn’t Letting A Cancer Diagnosis Slow Her Fight To Save Obamacare
In the months since Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) was
diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, her crusade to save the Affordable Care Act has
only intensified.
Doctors discovered the cancer in May and removed Hirono’s
right kidney soon after. Weeks later, the 69-year-old underwent another surgery
to have a lesion removed from one of her ribs ? but not before delivering a
stern warning to her colleagues on the Senate floor.
“Trumpcare would be a disaster to the American people, and
we’re fighting it tooth and nail,” Hirono said in June. “Tomorrow I’m going
into surgery to remove the lesion I have on my rib, but I’m going to be back as
quickly as I can to keep up the fight against this mean, ugly bill.”
True to her word, Hirono hasn’t backed down.
On Tuesday, she made her way to Capitol Hill to vote against
a Senate health care bill seeking to advance the repeal of the Obama-era
legislation. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tiebreaking 51st vote in favor
of the bill.
Minutes later, Hirono was on the steps of the Capitol.
“It’s personal, gosh darn it,” Hirono told a crowd of people
protesting the bill’s passage. “I am the poster child, along with John McCain,
frankly, for the proposition that we are all only one diagnosis away from a
major illness.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was diagnosed with brain
cancer last week after undergoing eye surgery, was greeted with a standing
ovation on the Senate floor Tuesday. McCain voted with his party to advance a
bill that would strip millions of Americans of their health insurance.
Standing next to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Hirono
said she’s doing “fine” ? thanks in large part to the kind of treatment and
health care that many Americans could lose if the ACA is repealed.
“Some of you may know that, in the last three months, I
found out that I have stage 4 kidney cancer,” Hirono said. “Boy, that really
threw me for a loop.”
“The great thing was, I had health care, so I wasn’t sitting
there worrying about how the heck I was going to pay for the care that I
needed,” she continued. “I could concentrate on the kind of care that would
make me well and keep me here on the steps on the Capitol to fight with you
guys, because this is going to be for the long haul.”
The contrast between Hirono and McCain, and between their
respective stances on health care, hasn’t been lost on some.
“Senator Hirono is recovering from her second surgery for
stage 4 kidney cancer,” Facebook user Jim Becker wrote in a post Tuesday that
has since gone viral. “She showed up today and voted to protect the health
insurance of 20+ million people.”
“Real heroes walk their talk and honor their professed
values when it actually matters,” he added.
Source:
Huffington Post
