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America’s Health Care: Take Two Shots of Pepto Bismol and Hope You Don’t Die |
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In Georgia, Linda is one of the nearly 15,000 people who have taken the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey. She writes that her husband’s employer provided health insurance for him but the family could not afford coverage for her and her daughter. Now Linda’s husband has lost his job.
My husband now has no health insurance, and he has diabetes. I have several chronic conditions which, if treated, would enable me to take a full-time job. But without treatment, I am unable to work full-time, and unable to do any kind of job that requires standing, bending, or lifting. My teenage daughter gets frequent severe headaches, and we can’t afford to have her diagnosed to find out what is causing the headaches.
Linda’s story is one of the more than 4,000 personal stories from working families about their experience with the nation’s troubled health care system.
We launched the survey Jan. 15 and will give the results to presidential, congressional, and state and local office-seekers to ensure that candidates at every level understand what working families are experiencing. (Check out a comparison of 2008 presidential candidates’ health care proposals here.)
The survey offers a unique opportunity for working families to make our voice heard on the cost of health insurance, quality of health care, access to prescription drugs and the gamut of health care problems we all face—and impress upon candidates for the White House, Congress and all public offices, just how important health care is as a voting issue in 2008.
Along with specific questions on affordability and quality, experiences with insurance companies, hospitals and doctors and suggested remedies, the survey also gives you the chance to tell your own story. (Click here to fill out the survey and tell your health care story. You can vote here on the stories you think make the most impact.)
In California, Randy’s lack of health insurance has led to bankruptcy.
I was turned away from an emergency room in San Francisco after the ER doc told me to go home and drink Pepto Bismo for my increasingly painful abdominal cramps. I did not have insurance. I passed out on the street six hours later and an ambulance took me to a different ER where they did emergency surgery and removed a gangrenous appendix. I was charged $38,000 for the surgery, a week in the hospital and ambulance service. I have declared bankruptcy.
Harry in New Jersey shares his insider’s knowledge of the drug industry.
Seventeen years ago, I was an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. I quit after two years because they were so evil. The top 200 companies create drugs that treat symptoms and do not cure anything. If they cured something they wouldn’t have a consumer for life. They treat the symptoms to keep the patient alive, functioning and dependent on their drugs.
They charge exorbitant prices, fool the public of how their R&D commands high prices. This is NOT true …The industry lobbies hard to prevent US Citizens from going outside the US to procure the exact same drugs at a fraction of the cost to keep their sales and profits high in the US. The prices US citizens pay subsidizes every other country on the planet which pays a fraction of the costs we do…. They crafted the recent legislation that prevents Medicare…from negotiating better prices…The pharmaceutical and healthcare insurance industries are two of the largest contributors to the Republican Party campaigns and will do anything to maintain privatization of healthcare policies and benefits to line their own coffers at even higher net profits than the oil industry.
Even workers with decent health insurance can face steep costs, writes Florida AFGE member Katherine:
I am a cancer survivor/patient. I am also a civil servant, and very lucky to have the medical coverage offered through my job. Even with that, I still owe over $4,000 which insurance doesn’t pay as chemotherapy and radiation are very expensive. I am also single and can’t imagine how someone with a family would be able to handle this expense.
Click here to find out more about the AFL-CIO’s Health Care Campaign to win secure, high quality affordable health care for all.
6 Comments
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I just received a lit drop from the Obama campaign. It starts out by blasting Hillary’s health care plan as bad. But then on the inside he touts his own health care plan - which is a verbatim copy of Joe Biden’s plan.
Perhaps because I live in Delaware this was a targeted massage and a pretty obvious attempt to win over Biden supporters.
Did his campaign really think we wouldn’t spot the plagiarism.
I have not had health care for 6 years. I am 40 years old and above the poverty level. I do not foresee any of the candidates making health care available to me or the millions of other people in my situation.
I am sad to say but I agree with “WRomanowski” about any of the candidates making health care available to those of us who do not have it.
I am 54 years old and lost my insurance when I retired from the State of Oregon. To clarify, I lost my insurance because I could not afford $900 a month for the premiums on my retirement benefit. I tried to get other coverage at a cheaper rate and that was futile. The insurance companies are a “for profit” business and they will deny you for almost anything, and they do. They did me, and I am pretty healthy.
Until we take the word “Insurance” out “Health Care” nothing can be done not will it be done. I am so cynical about the candidates that I believe they are all pretty much bought and paid for by the Medical establishment. And unfortunately when I vote again this year it will be for the lesser of two evils once again. I can guarantee one thing, it will not be any republican. I was really hoping that Mr. Edwards would have stayed in the race. I personally felt he was the only one even half way telling some truth.
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Richard - let me understand you correctly - did you say H.R. 676 ??
Absolutely, all of us, ALL of us have to force the issue. A sick society is very easily manipulated and that is how our government wants it. I say NO MORE!!!
Come January ‘09 when our dictator goes home home to chop wood, it is imperative that labor makes a strong stand to Congress and our new president for a single payer health plan.
We must convince Hillary or Barak that their plans will not cut it. Mandates make no sense to those who are unemployed, homeless, low income. They offer tax breaks but how does that benefit the above mentioned? And if they don’t get insurance, will they go to jail?
I agree with a single payer system! I’ll go a few steps further…a single payer NON-PROFIT system.
We should begin by defining this issue as being a reform to the way medical insurance is regulated. Otherwise, our opposition will define it as socialized medicine.