by Chris Bowman—Missouri
One day while canvassing, I talked to a woman who informed me that she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia a few years ago. She continued to explain that shortly after her visit to the hospital, her insurance company upped her premium to just over $1,000 a month. Prior to this diagnosis she was paying around $200 a month.
After a few months of doctor visits she was released from her policy for reasons unknown to her. Her insurance company told her she had a pre-existing condition, which she was unaware of before her diagnosis. Now she lives without health care because she spent all of her money for care after her insurance released her, and she can’t afford any insurance now. She went on to say that the daily pain brought on by her condition is horrible and there is nothing she can do about it.
Tags: Health Care, insurance
by Rick Snodgrass—Missouri
A retired man and a semi-retired woman in their late 60′s having to pay over $700 per month on insurance. With SSI and retirement pay she had to continue work as a book keeper to make ends meet.
Tags: Health Care, insurance, retirees
by Lauren Vlot—Pennsylvania
A woman answered the door and I began speaking to her about health care. She immediately invited me in and told me that she works so hard for her company, full time and they offer her nothing in the way of health care. Her children have no health care and one of them has a rare bone disease. She thanked me repeatedly, hugged me and told me that it’s people like me that give her hope. I expressed the inspiration I found in her and we both felt renewed. She agreed to volunteer for Working America to get her friends and family to sign our health care petition.
Tags: children, Health Care, insurance, membership, taking action
by Cara Alcantar—Michigan
I canvassed a woman who said she once had it all. She ran her own business, which she loved, she had a loving husband with a great job which provided the entire family with health care coverage, and two healthy kids. Then, a series of events happened that changed her life as she knew it.
First, she was in a horrible car accident that left her hospitalized for over a month. During this time her business suffered greatly—which lead to the very tough decision to shut it down, and stay at home with the kids while depending on her husband as the sole provider. Then, the unexpected happened again. Her husband died. Grief-stricken, she realized she had to start planning for a new life without his income or health care benefits. She found herself on an extremely fixed income and her family without health care coverage. Luckily, both of her children qualified for the Michigan health care assistance program provided by SCHIP; however she was still left without health care.
To this day she has no health care coverage, and she worries now about her part time job stability. “My main focus right now is to stay healthy, and keep the kids healthy. Tonight I’m thankful to have a few dollars to put under my daughter’s pillow from the tooth fairy.” She is making the best of her situation, but never realized how alone someone could feel, in this country, when they come on hard times. “It’s tragic to know there are families without any health care.”
As she shared her past years experiences with me I saw her try to hold back the tears. It was then that I was reminded why we do what we do. There are millions of stories just like hers across our country, and it is unacceptable. And for the first time, I think she realized she is NOT alone. It was a good feeling for both of us. She is now a hot contact, and wants to do what she can to help.
Tags: Health Care, insurance, membership, SCHIP
by Maranda Stebbins—Missouri
I met an elderly man last night who was enjoying the fresh air through his screen door. He invited me to step inside because it was difficult for him to move around. As I began my rap, he started to look at me a bit suspiciously. After I handed him my clipboard and the pen, he asked me if I thought this would do any good. Of course I said I absolutely thought so—that it was the very reason we do this work. He told me he was no Spring chicken, and that he had seen how things go in this country, and told me it is only getting worse.
He shared with me that he is a cancer patient on social security, and his monthly charges for health care keep rising. Additionally he has one prescription that costs him over $100 every month. He then told me that he still has debt from the first round of chemotherapy treatments, when he was insured through his wife through her job at a major retailer. Under the insurance plan he racked up over $12,000 for chemo, and $24,000 for surgery. We all know that kind of money to someone with a retail paycheck is—to say the least—a lot.
This man was skeptical of Working America at first, but as he went on with his story and personal political opinions, it was obvious to me that he was very passionate about the issues that we fight for. When I left, he had not only signed on as a dues-paying member, but also expressed interest in getting more involved.
Tags: Health Care, insurance, membership, seniors
by Matthew Gilmore—Missouri
I met a man in Gladstone, Missouri who told me about how he served in the U.S. Marine Corps but is now a teacher. He told me that he, his wife and daughter are all covered under his employer’s health insurance, but that if he lost the insurance only he would continue to be covered by the government. He was worried that if something happened his wife and daughter would go without.
Tags: Health Care, insurance, veterans
by Stefan Gravener—Pennsylvania
Last week I was talking to an elderly man, and during a conversation about our health care crisis, he invited me into his home. It was a modest row-home in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He was retired, he had worked hard during his life, but he had a huge problem. He had recently received a package from his health insurance company “detailing” his new health care policy. It was three inches thick. Accompanying it were a few other pieces of mail, all from his health insurance company.
He picked up the Goliath of a packet and said, “I don’t understand any of this.” He slammed the girthy package down on his coffee table; the table now wishing it was retired. He signed up as a member, after which he pointed to his wall. He had received an award for fighting to protect Social Security and Medicare from an organization I forget.
Although this man is fighting the good fight, he has to spend his retired days reading books by his health insurance company, which to him is a book with a bad ending.
Tags: Health Care, insurance, membership, retirees, seniors
by Jeanne M—Minnesota
I met a woman whose husband had been laid off. He started his own software support business, and they’d tried to get health insurance. They applied to six different companies who kept turning them down because their daughter gets allergy injections. The last company they applied to turned them down because her husband’s body mass index is too high, since he is built like a football player. It’s not that they don’t want to have health insurance, it’s that no one will insure them.
Tags: Health Care, insurance
by A. Mark Robinson—Pennsylvania
I spoke with a man this evening about health care. He stated he had received a liver transplant. He informed me that he works for a good company with good benefits. However, at the hospital he was told that if he ran out of insurance he would be kept alive with medications but would get no transplant. How cold!
Tags: Health Care, insurance
by Larry Ford—Pennsylvania
I spoke with a woman recovering from surgery. She had undergone an operation to repair internal damages caused by her four pregnancies and the delivery of her children. Her health insurance plan determined that the procedure was cosmetic and refused to make any insurance payment, leaving her to pay 100% of the expense.
Tags: Health Care, insurance
