Health care is an issue that uniquely affects families. I remember as a poor, childless graduate student, I didn’t give much thought to being uninsured for a year or two. But this is a risk few parents voluntarily take. Kids get sick. My son’s brief hospital stay for RSV last year would have set us back more than $6,000 if it weren’t for insurance. And there is all the routine and preventative care that children require. The proportion of our income that having adequate coverage costs us has grown and grown. Especially in this era of stagnant wages. So I’m paying close attention to the health-care debate and hoping fervently that amid all the rancor some meaningful reform will emerge. Because this time it’s our children that will pay if this thing gets shelved for another generation.