Parents Should Provide

Today's Live Free or Die award goes to Heather Brown of Hillsboro, for her letter in today's Oregonian:

Parents should provide

I agree that health insurance for children is a basic necessity. What I don't understand is why parents cannot take responsibility for the situations they create.

Nicolle Owings says "I'm so mad . . . I'll do anything to get the government to do something to help low-income working people have health care" ("One uninsured girl puts face on crisis in Oregon," Jan. 21).

Does this family not realize that continuing to have children has put them in this situation? My husband and I have one child and can afford health insurance for her. However, if we made the choice to have two more children, we would be considered "low income" as well (as a family of five).

I think it is important for people to take responsibility for the decisions they make, and that includes having children for whom they cannot properly provide.

HEATHER BROWN, Hillsboro