Everyone should have health care coverage

May 26-- May 26--KALKASKA -- Health care for everyone is a top priority for Carol Phillips, a retired state worker who lives on Manistee Lake in rural Kalkaska County.

She said it's bothersome to know there are other retired people who can't afford their prescription medication costs and general health care expenses, such as diabetics who ration their insulin and end up further damaging their well-being. Phillips, 63, who describes herself as a centrist, said she's fortunate to have good health insurance as a state retiree, but knows others aren't so blessed.

"Health care for everyone should be a thing and not just for people like me who were blessed enough to work during a time when this coverage was still offered," she said.

Phillips has a pre-existing medical condition that requires a great deal of medical care. Without her insurance, just one of her medications would cost $10,000 without discounts -- the type of expense that could bankrupt families without comparative health care coverage, she said.

Women's health care is another pressing issue with abortion rights once again at the forefront of that hot-button debate, Phillips said.

"My view on that is I'm pro-choice. Everybody who is pro-life thinks pro-choice means pro-abortion and that's not it at all," she said. "It means, to me, I feel women should be able to make their own choice about what to do with their pregnancies without any outside interference."

A woman's own religion and input from her doctor should factor in decisions about her reproductive health and not the opinions of outsiders, Phillips said.

"Likewise, she will have to live with the benefit or consequences of those choices, as hard as they may be," she said.

Phillips said efforts to remove funding for Planned Parenthood in the name of pro-life efforts has unintended consequences on other aspects of women's health care. A middle-aged friend of hers without employer-provided health care coverage went to the nonprofit health agency where medical professionals discovered her cancer in time for treatment to return the woman to good health, she said.

"When people want to de-fund Planned Parenthood, they are taking away health care from women that doesn't involve pregnancy or abortion. I don't think people know that," Phillips said. "I'll never forget how grateful she was that Planned Parenthood saved her life."

Another key issue for Phillips is the environment and efforts to address climate change. The loss of pollinator insects and global migration because of climate-related crop collapses are examples of any number of changes on the horizon for a warming world, she said.

"I fear for my grandchildren because of the unknowns," Phillips said. "Our current leadership in Washington is reversing policies -- not just national policies but our stand on international policies -- but we need to continue these efforts, like renewable energy. It's pretty much almost too late right now.

"I'm going to be dead and gone when all this happens, and I wonder if that's not how the current leadership is thinking. They aren't thinking about the next generations," she said.

Phillips said she does agree with President Donald Trump that the use of tariffs can encourage U.S. companies to produce goods here, so fewer products will be imported and American manufacturing can grow.

She also prefers to buy products made in the United States, she said.

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