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"title" : "How about health care for Thanksgiving?" }); </script>  <h1>How about health care for Thanksgiving?</h1>   <div class="cnn_stryathrtmp"> <div class="cnnByline">By <strong>Bob Greene</strong> </div> <div class="cnn_strytmstmp">updated 10:49 AM EST, Thu November 28, 2013</div> </div>  <div class="cnn_strycntntlft">  <div class="cnn_stryimg640captioned"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/131122190327-greene-health-care-thanksgiving-story-top.jpg" alt="Bob Greene says Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on families who believed it when they were told they would get access health care." border="0" height="360" width="640"/></div> <div class="cnn_stryimg640caption"><div class="cnn_strycaptiontxt">Bob Greene says Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on families who believed it when they were told they would get access health care.</div></div> <a name="em0"></a> <div class="cnn_strylftcntnt"><div class="cnn_strylctcntr"> <div><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</strong></div> <ul class="cnn_bulletbin cnnStryHghLght">  <li>Bob Greene: In politics, to take something on faith is to believe it is "on the legit"</li> <li>It's another way of saying: Suckers. People thought health reform was on the legit, he says</li> <li>He says at Thanksgiving, politicians should recall who gets left out in health care bickering</li> <li>Greene: It's the people who can't afford health care, but believed things would change for better</li>  </ul> </div></div>  <p class="cnnEditorialNote"><em><strong>Editor's note:</strong> CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose 25 books include "Late Edition: A Love Story"; "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War"; and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen." </em></p> <p><strong>(CNN)</strong> -- There is a phrase that has long been used in certain big-city political circles.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph2">It has always been said with an implied -- and sometimes literal -- sneer:</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph3">"They think it's on the legit."</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph4">It refers to people who are trusting by nature -- occasionally novice political adversaries, often the general public -- and who make the mistake of actually believing a proposal that is being presented to them. People who, hearing a promise, take it on faith.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph5">"They think it's on the legit."</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph6">Meaning:</p> <div class="cnn_strylftcntnt"><div class="cnn_strylctcntr cnn_strylccimg214"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121006125214-bob-greene-nu-hedshot-left-tease.jpg" alt="Bob Greene" border="0" class="box-image" height="122" width="214"/> <div>Bob Greene</div> </div></div> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph7">"Suckers."</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph8">This is Thanksgiving week. For all the heated talk about, and blame-placing over, the deeply troubled federal health care initiative -- for those who blame President Barack Obama and the Democrats for the screwed-up rollout, for those who blame the Republicans for their longstanding opposition to the White House plan and their determination to combat it at every turn, for those who are furious that the early pledge about being able to keep current insurance was not real, for those who take delight that the website has been a disaster because it makes one side come off as incompetent -- this may be a good moment to step back and think, with real-life compassion, about what sometimes gets lost in the partisan back-and-forth.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph9">To think about the people who don't care much about Beltway haggling, but who desperately need dependable health care for their families, and who were hoping against hope that readily available medical care was at last going to be theirs. The people who heard the promises.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph10">They thought it was on the legit.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph11">At base, this isn't -- or should not be -- a matter of politics, of Washington winners and losers. The families to whom reliable health care has been an unattainable dream don't care which party finds a way to that health care for them. And both parties, at least in their public statements, agree that while they might not concur at all on the method of getting there, they concur on the goal. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida: "As policymakers, we must focus on making health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans."</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph12">Let the ideologues on both ends of the right-left continuum make a game of this, if they wish. But do you think, when a person with a sick child finds a doctor who will help and who will bring peace of mind, the parent cares whether the physician is a Republican or a Democrat? The same goes for how a person in such need would feel about a member of Congress who helped him or her find a path to decent care.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph13">For those among us fortunate enough to have doctors we can go to, and the means to pay for them, this Thanksgiving week is a time to remind ourselves how grateful we should feel to be in such a position. Because it is only when you're not in that position -- when you are sick and have nowhere to turn, or, worse, when it is your son or daughter who is sick and you have to explain that you have nowhere to turn -- that you fully understand the fear and helplessness that kicks in in the middle of the night.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph14">Come October 1, the people who yearned for a way to take care of their families' health were told, such a way will be yours.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph15">Well-to-do people are always going to have more options for finding the best health care for their families. That is a fact of life.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph16">But -- and here is where political leaders of both parties, whatever their differences, should find common ground -- access to health care shouldn't be a luxury. Health care is not a Mercedes, or a mansion on a hill. A family should not be deprived of it merely because they lack wealth, or have lost employment. Republicans and Democrats, Americans all, should acknowledge that health care is not a diamond bracelet to be gazed at with longing through a store window.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph17">It's time to cool down the rhetoric and the finger-pointing. Before we get any deeper into the recriminations about rollouts and delays and extensions and penalties and startovers and repeals, we might want to pause, this Thanksgiving week, to put ourselves in the shoes of the people to whom the promise was profound and real.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph18">There but for the grace. . . .</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph19">The people who need health care and who wait for this mess to be cleaned up are the people who have always been asked to wait. They will wait again, because they have little choice.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph20">For the rest of us, perhaps this is a week not only for prayers of thanksgiving for what we have, but also a week for thoughts of those families who believed it when they were told that things were going to change for the better.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph21">Who thought it was on the legit.</p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph22"><i><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834/https://twitter.com/#!/cnnopinion" target="_blank">Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.</a></i></p> <p class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph23"><i><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834/http://www.facebook.com/CNNOpinion" target="_blank">Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.</a></i></p> <script type="text/javascript">if(typeof CNN.expElements==='object'){CNN.expElements.init();}</script> <p class="cnn_strycbftrtxt">The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene</p>   <div class="cnn_stryshrwdgtbtm"> <div id="cnn_sharebar2"> <div class="c_sharebar_cntr c_sharebar_loading"> <div class="cnn_stryswdgtbtm1"> <div class="cnn_stryswdgtbtm1a"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/24/opinion/greene-health-care-for-thanksgiving/index.html#disqus_thread">0</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryswdgtbtm1b"><a href="#cnn-disqus-area">Comments »</a></div> </div> <div class="cnn_stryswdgtbtm2"> <div class="c_sharebtmcol1"> <div class="c_sharetitle">SHARE THIS</div> <div class="c_sharebtns"> <ul> <li class="c_sharebtn c_sharebtnfb"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="cnnsocial.share.click('cnn_sharebar2', 'facebook');"></a></li> <li class="c_sharebtn c_sharebtntwtr"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="cnnsocial.share.click('cnn_sharebar2', 'twitter');"></a></li> <li class="c_sharebtn c_sharebtngplus"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="cnnsocial.share.click('cnn_sharebar2', 'googleplus');"></a></li> <li class="c_sharebtn c_sharebtnlnkn"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="cnnsocial.share.click('cnn_sharebar2', 'linkedin');"></a></li> </ul> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div> </div> <div class="c_sharebtmdiv"></div> <div class="c_sharebtmcol2"> <div class="fb-like" data-send="false" data-layout="box_count" data-width="90" data-show-faces="false" data-action="recommend" href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/24/opinion/greene-health-care-for-thanksgiving/index.html"></div> </div> <div class="c_sharebtmdiv"></div> <div class="c_shareweb c_sharebtmcol3"> <ul> <li class="cnn_sswdgtweb1"><a href="#" onclick="if(typeof CleanPrintPrintHtml!='undefined' && CleanPrintPrintHtml) CleanPrintPrintHtml(); 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This talented yet insufferable defensive back for the Seattle Seahawks isn't the 21st-century version of Malcolm, Martin or Medgar, writes Terence Moore. </div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/opinion/monroe-arrest-study-males/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">Why I won't let my son get arrested</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 3:07 PM EST, Wed January 22, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/opinion/monroe-arrest-study-males/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120118062928-prison-cell-video-tease.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4">Bryan Monroe says a new study casts a frightening light on the likelihood that half of all black males will face arrest before they turn 23.</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/navarrette-bachelor-statements-about-gays/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">'Bachelor' anti-gay remark doesn't speak for Latinos</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 2:22 PM EST, Mon January 20, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/navarrette-bachelor-statements-about-gays/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130806104031-bachelor-juan-pablo-video-tease.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4">Ruben Navarrette says the reality show's Latino bachelor said gays were 'pervert' and 'not a good example for kids.' That's offensive, but also: Has he watched his own show?</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/zelizer-christie-politics/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">How Christie could rebound -- and come out stronger</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 7:10 AM EST, Mon January 20, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/zelizer-christie-politics/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140116152442-zelizer-christie-scandal-video-tease.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4">Julian Zelizer says his poll numbers may have slumped, but if the governor is not tied further to scandal, he may be able to ride out his crisis, damage his opponents and emerge still poised for 2016</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/brazile-poverty/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">'Change is gonna come': Poverty from Johnson to Obama</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 11:23 AM EST, Mon January 20, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/brazile-poverty/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140108122745-war-on-poverty-08-video-tease.jpeg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4">Donna Brazile says right wing pundits are wrong when they argue that Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty began the expansion of welfare</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/harris-women-jobs-shriver-report/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">For women, economic justice a civil rights issue</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 1:19 AM EST, Tue January 21, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/harris-women-jobs-shriver-report/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140119121730-obama-equal-pay-file-video-tease.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4">Maya Harris says, on MLK day, remember that the inequality in income and jobs between women and men is a civil rights issue</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/19/opinion/mills-mlk-nyt/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">How MLK ad helped define America's press freedoms</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 9:47 AM EST, Mon January 20, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/19/opinion/mills-mlk-nyt/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140119123021-mills-mlk-nyt-video-tease.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4"> Nicolaus Mills says it's worth remembering on MLK day the Supreme Court case that established the modern legal threshold for press freedom had its roots in the civil rights movement</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/19/opinion/greene-space-station/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">The amazing story we ignore</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 11:11 AM EST, Sun January 19, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/19/opinion/greene-space-station/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140107172216-sun-rise-international-space-station-video-tease.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4">Bob Greene says hurtling around the earth above us, the International Space Station brings astronauts from countries around the globe together for research. Why are barely wowed by this?</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/17/opinion/costello-michelle-obama-turning-50/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">For women over 50: Bikinis, botox and bling?</a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 5:02 PM EST, Fri January 17, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/17/opinion/costello-michelle-obama-turning-50/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140116183434-carol-costello-0116-video-tease.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4">Carol Costello wonders why Michelle Obama was asked about plastic surgery and exercise as she turns 50; did anyone ask the President that?</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_stryspcvbx"><div class="cnn_stryspcvbxcntr"><div class="cnn_stryscbx1"> <div><a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/15/opinion/hardy-plural-marriage/index.html?iid=article_sidebar">Why plural marriages make sense </a></div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx2"> updated 4:01 PM EST, Wed January 15, 2014 </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx3"> <a href="/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/15/opinion/hardy-plural-marriage/index.html?iid=article_sidebar"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140114174635-sister-wives-file---restricted-video-tease.jpg" alt="" border="0" height="68" width="120"/></a> </div> <div class="cnn_stryscbx4">Janet W. Hardy says it's tempting to think of the nuclear family as an ideal and universal norm, but it's not</div> <div class="cnn_clear"></div> </div></div></div> <div class="cnn_strycrcntrpad"> <div class="cnn_divline"></div> <div class="cnn_pad10top"></div> <div><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834/http://www.cnn.com/opinion?iid=article_sidebar" class="cnn_strymrebtn"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834im_/http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.e/img/3.0/1px.gif" alt="" border="0"/></a></div> </div> <div class="cnn_divline cnn_divlscrc"></div> <div class="cnn_divline cnn_divlscrc"></div> <div class="cnn_sectbincntnt cnn_zitemodule"></div> <div class="cnn_divline cnn_divlscrc"></div> <div style="padding-bottom:17px;padding-top:17px;" class="cnn_strycrcntrpad"> <div class="OUTBRAIN" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140122232834oe_/http://www.cnn.com//2013/11/24/opinion/greene-health-care-for-thanksgiving/index.html" data-widget-id="AR_6" 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