Ashley Prescott

Your turn

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 35 years ago, when I was 4 years old. After earning my degree in psychology, I worked as a social worker for 10 years in foster care, substance abuse counseling, and school mental health services.

I’m a mother of 8-year-old twins and I’ve been a registered Democrat since I was 18. I have stood with my party all the way. But the time has come for real change. We need policy, not platitudes.

I am voting for Bernie Sanders.

Because of inconsistent access to affordable insurance and insulin, the damage to my kidneys is so extensive that I'm applying for a transplant. For 20 years, I faced the “pre-existing condition” roadblock and denials from insurance companies for specialist visits, insulin pumps and glucose monitoring systems. I can personally attest to the outrageous cost of all of the supplies necessary for diabetics to stay alive.

The Affordable Care Act helped, but didn’t go far enough. I’m a perfect example of how our for-profit healthcare system is slowly killing people across the United States. Their CEOs and lobbyists make millions while folks like me die due to inability to afford consistent, quality care for chronic conditions.

Last year, almost 35 years since my diagnosis, I finally got an insulin pump that shows my blood sugar in real time. I fight so that no one else ends up like me, thrown away by the for-profit healthcare industry.

The time has come for Medicare for All.

Nearly 80% of American workers live paycheck to paycheck; 40 million live in poverty. Each year, 35,000 Americans die due to lack of access to healthcare; half a million go bankrupt due to medical bills; 45 million are burdened with student debt; wages have been stagnant for 40 years. Many of our senior citizens are barely able to make ends meet on their Social Security benefits.

We have a crisis in America, and only Bernie has been fighting for economic, social, and environmental justice his entire career. Unlike the vast majority of politicians on both sides of the aisle, he has refused to be bought by billionaires and corporations who lobby for their own corporate welfare while impeding policies that would protect ordinary Americans.

Bernie and his supporters do not want “free stuff." We simply want our tax dollars to benefit the American people, instead of endless wars and tax breaks for the top 1%. The idea of democratic socialism may be scary for many, but it should not be. It means policies are chosen and funded “by the people” and “for the people. ”Roads, police and fire departments, the military, Social Security, Medicare, and public schools are all funded by taxpayers, just to name a few.

We need to progress, not retreat to our past. Bernie is not afraid of the fossil fuel industry, the private prison industry, or the military industrial complex because he is not beholden to them. Rather than voting to send our young men and women into unnecessary regime change and oil wars, Bernie has consistently fought for funding and policies to care for our veterans.

Most importantly for those of us who are horrified by the current administration, Bernie would restore our country’s moral compass and is also the Democrat most likely to win in a general election against Trump. I have personally changed countless nonpartisan and Republican voter registrations to Democrat just because they want to vote for Bernie In Brevard County.

Donald Trump has run a populist campaign, but ultimately adopted policies that have been in the best interest of his corporate cronies, not the American people. Bernie is our best hope for real change. We must not fight for the status quo, but for people we do not know. That’s what Bernie constantly inspires us to do.

It’s time for Democrats to return to our roots — to FDR and JFK who spoke out for universal healthcare decades ago, and unleashed the American imagination to create real progress.

Here on the Space Coast, we know better than most what Americans can make possible when we work together to make it so.

Ashley Prescott lives in Palm Bay and is campaigning for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 election.