Ranting On...Julie Boonstra

It’s quite easy to have an opinion on Julie Boonstra.  The woman who has become the poster child for the Koch brothers' recent campaign against the Affordable Care Act has been portrayed in the media as both a martyr, the great poster child of all of the harm that Obamacare has brought, and a liar, a piece of propaganda that the Republicans are perpetrating on the American people in order to win elections.  The question is, of course-which is she?  And what sorts of things does her newfound celebrity tell us about the media and the state of politics in 2014?

For those who don’t know the story, Julie Boonstra is the current star of a brutal ad in Michigan.  Ms. Boonstra is suffering from leukemia, and claims that her insurance was cut due to the Affordable Care Act.  She mentions the President’s promise of “if you like your insurance, you can keep it.”  It’s a devastating ad, but the problem is, it’s not true, according to experts.  The Detroit News has looked into her case and found that her new plan will actually save her at least $1200, and may save more due to her new plan having out-of-pocket caps.  This is in addition to the fact that under the new healthcare law, her situation as a leukemia patient cannot be listed as a pre-existing condition.

I think the one thing that we can all agree on here is that Ms. Boonstra’s situation as a cancer patient is a tragedy.  I would love it if this commercial were about how politicians could increase spending on finding cures for diseases such as leukemia-that is a conversation truly worth having.  However, if the Affordable Care Act is truly causing harm to people’s lives Ms. Boonstra is a horrible example.  Aside from having the disruption in her care, this all seems like relatively good news for Julie Boonstra.  She will be able to save more money, was able to keep the doctor that she wanted, and won’t have to worry about leukemia being an existing condition for the rest of her life.  These facts aren’t in this commercial though.

And there’s the real scary problem of all of this-the Democrats are put in a nearly impossible situation against Boonstra and the Koch brothers, and the Republicans know it.  I mean, what is someone like Rep. Gary Peters supposed to do?  He can either hope this line-of-attack stops (it won’t) or he can fight back against a woman who is battling a deadly disease.  No one wants to see a cancer patient go through a media and political beating-it’s repugnant.  And yet, with Ms. Boonstra looking the facts of the matter in the face and shaking her head no, and then attacking Gary Peters once again for trying to “silence” her, there’s really no other recourse for the Democrats.

Because the reality is that there are millions of people who would lose their health insurance because of Ms. Boonstra if people like Terri Lynn Land (the Republican candidate in Michigan) were to win the Senate race in Michigan.  Millions of people truly are covered as a result of the Affordable Care Act, which Rep. Peters voted for in the House.  That’s the fact of this case, and why it is so important that people who are lying about the legislation not be able to do so without repercussions.

This “truth be damned” sort of narrative is a scary jump for us to make as well in our political conversations as well.  Rep. Paul Ryan recently illustrated it with his story about a little boy who didn’t want a federal lunch program, reciting the story in a way to illustrate that food stamps are not a worthwhile solution and implying that parents who are on them don’t care as much about their children.    In fact the story had not been told to his associate, but was lifted from a story from years and years ago, which happened to be from someone who is now a an advocate for federal lunches.  These sorts of stories are not just nasty politics-they're lies.  When a major politician or PAC is comfortable not just giving some version of the truth, but downright lies and there are no repercussions, that is something that should frighten all of us.

In the end, I truly hope that Ms. Boonstra's care will be able to help her.  Cancer is a scary disease and one that we all hope is eradicated in our lifetimes.  However, her campaign against Gary Peters is something that the Democrats need to attack because it is morally wrong.  Winning a campaign based on the spreading of lies and falsehoods is a dangerous path for anyone to take, and the Koch brothers and the Republican Party in Michigan should not be able to silence the truth.