Last year, Jim Spiri traveled the country campaigning for McCain. This year, he is openly supporting Obama’s push for health-care reform. Here’s why.
Jim Spiri is a conservative who traveled extensively last year to try to help GOP nominee John McCain win the presidency.
Now, he’s openly supporting President Barack Obama’s attempt to reform the nation’s health-care system.
The Albuquerque resident, who has a long history of activism that includes successfully lobbing Congress change a military health-care rule following his son’s death in 2001, says it’s time for Republicans to come to the table and work with Obama on reform.
Spiri said in a recent interview that he favors a government-run insurance system to compete with private insurance companies, even if he has to help pay for it.
“I’m not saying it would make me vote for Obama in the future, because I did not vote for him this time, but I do give him high marks for taking the bull by the horns,” Spiri said. “… I disagree with the Republicans not getting behind Obama and trying to fix this, because that one issue would strengthen the entire country.”
Obama is currently making a strong push for health-care reform. In addition to lobbying members of Congress, he’s holding an online town-hall meeting on the subject on Wednesday. Last week, his administration released statistics for New Mexico and other states that a news release said highlight the “urgent need” for reform.
The president isn’t pushing a specific proposal and is taking some criticism from the left as he agrees to compromises in an attempt to win support. But while Obama is seeking cooperation with Republicans, Democrats close to him are warning that they’ll move ahead without the GOP if it insists on too many concessions.
Private insurance system is a ‘disaster’
Spiri, a combat war photographer and an occasional blogger for the Philadelphia news Web site philly.com and other sites, identifies himself as a conservative but not a Republican. He leans to the right on most issues, he said, but, because so many millions of people are uninsured, he believes strongly in the need for a government option to compete with a private insurance system he called a “disaster.”
Spiri said his support for such reform is “directly related to the situation I encountered when my son was ill. Even as a Marine, the insurance was a disaster.”
Spiri’s son Jesse had just been commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Marines in May 2001 when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The company providing health insurance for the military refused to pay for his care. At the time, the company wasn’t required to cover treatment because Jesse Spiri hadn’t yet reported for duty.
The cancer took Jesse Spiri’s life less than eight weeks later. Jim Spiri, with the help of former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., successfully lobbied Congress in 2003 to change the law and require coverage from the time people are commissioned in the military.
Now Spiri believes it’s time for much broader reform. He said there should be “a bipartisan consensus” behind Obama’s efforts.
Spiri also had praise for Gov. Bill Richardson, saying his state-level initiatives to increase the number of people with health insurance have been commendable.
Spiri’s step across party lines on health care is apparently a touchy political topic. The state Democratic and Republican parties, and even the governor’s office, did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Admit when something else is better’
Spiri has another son who is currently stationed in Iraq with the U.S. Army, and Spiri been outspoken about his conservative views on the war and other issues.
Last year, he traveled around the country to campaign for McCain. I last caught up with him in October, when he watched the vice presidential debate at a Las Cruces restaurant during a campaign stop.
That night, Spiri had high praise for GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, saying the she proved during the debate that “it was time to open up and show the reason that Sen. McCain picked her in the first place.”
Spiri attended Obama’s visit to Rio Rancho on credit-card reform in May. After the event, he wrote that Obama should have instead talked about supporting America’s soldiers.
“Now, my government is telling me there is plenty of money to bail out bankers and New Mexicans that cannot pay their credit card bill from Wal Mart,” he wrote. “But my government is not saying anything about taking care of the helicopters my younger son is flying in war to give these irresponsible New Mexicans the freedom to ask the current Commander in Chief for some money to pay their credit cards off.”
But on the issue of health-care reform, Spiri said in the interview, “the people on the other side of the spectrum” including Obama “are doing a better job.”
“I think it’s important that a politically conservative person by nature admit when something else is better,” he said. “I believe there are a lot of conservatives who feel the same way I do — that may have problems with insurance or may not have coverage — that may be afraid to speak out. I’m not afraid of anything.”