About 25 years ago our middle daughter, Eileen , then aged four developed leukaemia. (I will fast forward before I go on and tell you that she made a complete recovery)

The shock and anguish which you face when a child has a life threatening disease can be imagined by any parent.
Our friends and family and, unexpectedly, the Irish state helped us enormously through a very tough few years.
The state immediately provided Eileen with a Long Term Illness Card, effectively a medical card which meant that all care and medicines were paid for by the state.
We were given free travel, by minibus to attend all clinics in Dublin for the duration of her treatment and granted a special hardship dole.

Thanks to this the illness gave us no financial burden over the long five years until Eileen was given a clean bill of health.

We have American friends who told us that as the same time as Eileen’s illness the child of a friend of theirs in America also developed the same disease.
They discovered that their insurance did not cover the treatment and so they sold their house and their car to pay for treating their child.

At the time I remember thinking that this was not the mark of a civilized country.
And it wasn’t, until last week when Mr. Obama got his health care bill through.