These stories come from the real people who live with a broken health care system. Some have health insurance and some do not. Many of these stories suggest potential solutions* that lead to quality, affordable health care we can count on. One thing we all agree on is that the we cannot trust the insurance industry to fix themselves. To learn more about what Health Care for America Now stands for read our Statement of Common Purpose.
We wanted to give you a chance to speak for yourself, in your own voice, about the need for Health Care for America Now. Do you have something to say? Tell us your story.
for
val
Wake Forest, NC
I just sat down to add up receipts for my family's 2007 income taxes.
I was in shock when I finished counting our medical expenses. The total came to $18,428.49. That does not include the $4,400 we paid in insurance premiums.
These are our out-of-pocket expenses: doctor visits, the children's antibiotics for ear infections, dental work and a couple of quick trips to the emergency room for toddler mishaps (lasting less than two hours each -- one son needed four stitches, the other was given a butterfly bandage). There were no broken bones last year. No one in this household received surgery or was diagnosed with cancer. This was a normal year with three small children.
I am outraged! It is sick. It is unfair. It is immoral. It is WRONG! Our family is middle-class, but we are lucky that we didn't go bankrupt. We managed to keep our heads above water last year, but what might happen this year? What is happening to all of the other families with stories like this?
I knew as I was paying the bills last year that we were spending a lot. After counting the final tally this morning, I just don't know what to do anymore. I have lost faith in the insurance companies, in the doctors, in the entire system that our government has allowed to come to be.
As I sit here now, with tears in my eyes, the only thing I can genuinely say is that I have not lost faith in America itself. We overcome. We triumph. We make change happen. We have always come together when change was needed ... often in prose, sometimes through marching and sometimes by war. What I know for sure is that when the status quo didn't work anymore, we always fought to make it right.
I hope a revolution is not needed for this problem. I hope that our government will have the integrity to power down the greedy insurance and pharmaceutical companies. This I hope.
But if not, I will guarantee one thing: The will of the American people is strong. When enough Americans have been affected by this injustice, change WILL happen. Be it through prose, be it through marches or be it through revolution.
Val Huysentruyt
Wake Forest
*Health Care for America Now is not responsible for the content of these stories. These stories are submitted by individuals in the online audience and have been edited in some cases. Health Care For America Now does not endorse any of the solutions or policy positions suggested in the content of these stories. Health Care for America Now is a coalition of organizations that agree to the Statement of Common Purpose.
See our coalition partner list.
Read the Statement of Common Purpose.
