I am a 52 year old, married for 30 years, mother of two. My husband and I have owned a construction company for 29 years...we are self employed. I have had six serious eye surgeries. My health insurance was canceled while I was on the operating table with the first surgery. That surgery cost around 30,000. I have had six surgeries all without insurance. My husband and I have clawed our way through the financial cost of this. After the first surgery I went to work for a Family Practice doctor part-time. This was a way for me to make sure my family could be seen by a doctor since we had no health insurance due to having to pay large amounts of bills due to my eye surgeries. Even if I could afford to pay for health insurance the policy would not cover my eyes. While working in the medical field I saw first hand what money is being handed out with medicaid payments. I want you to know I am shocked at how the system works. My husband have paid every bill on my eyes...if we do not have the money we do not go to the doctor. Meanwhile medicaid is paying for MUCH. While working in a medical clinic I had occasion to sometimes be in a exam room with medicaid patients. I have personally witnessed the medicaid program with my own eyes. The physician that I worked for tried his very best to try and take care of the "forgotten" patients the patients that work and do not qualify for medicaid. One such patient will forever stand out in my mind. It was a 52 year old uninsured oil field worker with a cancerous jaw growth. I worked for TWO weeks trying to get him into a specialist. This man was scared and alone...while he was in the hospital I would go and sit with him...I held a scared 52 year old man's hand (whom I had never met before)that same day I also processed medicaid for three pregnant 12 year olds. The pregnant 12 year olds are paid for by the government. The 52 year old working man...no doctor wanted to see him. I have personally been in debt for years to pay for the gift of sight and I'm going to tell you I have the time to hold a scared strangers hand..even when the doctors and hospitals turned him away. I do not know what happened to this patient. I hope that I got him to a doctor. I fear for him. I fear for myself and my family with no insurance. You guys need to open your eyes and see what is happening to the hard working middle class people. Even though I have been through much medically the day that I held that man's hand it changed me inside. The system that we have in place is wrong.