Meet Ari, five years old, who received a heart transplant this Spring, Please note that he can already pronounce "anesthesia" perfectly.

Ari is from Massachusetts, which thanks to Romneycare has nearly universal insurance coverage for their population. (Ari is recovering and you can see his latest update here.)

I cannot imagine the cost of his care. "189 days inpatient. 314 days since he was listed for a heart transplant. 2,073 days since his first heart surgery before he was born. He still has huge hills to climb. We’ll go home on 21(!) medications, not counting the IV infusions he’ll need every two weeks, and the oxygen he’ll be on either full or part time for a while. "

And while Ari apparently has health insurance, many kids like Ari don't, or are for the moment dependent on Medicaid to stay alive.

And a cute LOCAL kid, disabled or in the hospital, is the perfect cover picture for a holiday weekend newspaper, as a LOCAL angle to the Republican "healthcare" bill story.

Never forget as Tip O'Neill said, politics is local.