I live in Mississippi, where I have been involved in Katrina recovery since the storm hit. I have encountered many people who were not insured or not insured enough in my dealings with trying to get people's lives back in order. Many people were faced with the choice of having health insurance or homeowners insurance. They could not afford both. Many small business people had no way of covering their families and employees and still pay for business related insurance. This is a serious problem for the poor, even the middle class, and... (more)

My son can not find a job with health care coverage... a college honors graduate... going back to graduate school in order to get coverage through university. This is not a "major" story but one that can be told millions of times across America. There is also limited health care facilities/doctors three years after Hurricane Katrina.

I am a social worker and seeing the constant level of unnecessary stress and lack of care for so many working poor people and others is distressing. Their only option is the emergency room where they cannot be turned away. Doctors will not see uninsured people who cannot come up with the cash. People who have to pay for their own coverage, middle class healthy people are paying $400 - $800 a month with huge deductibles. The bankruptcy rate is alarming. Everyone deserves access to decent healthcare. Every other industrialized country from... (more)

I'm 65 and a retired nurse anesthetist. I don't know what the answer is. Hospital care is so different for what it was in 1964 when I started, it is almost unrecognizable. Back then MOST of the employees were directly or indirectly involved in patient care. Today the system is bloated with workers whose only function is to read and interpret all the rules which must be followed in order for the hospital to keep it's accreditation so it can continue to get government money. We are now at a point where we are paying this bureaucracy almost... (more)

Health care is very important to me. My grandmother, grandfather, and uncle died from cancer. Health care should be lowered so other people can receive adequate treatment so they don't suffer the same fate.

we need universal health care now! my son and i have not seen a regular doctor or a dentist in over 15 years , i have worked since i was 10 and and cannot afford health care when i did have health care i couldnt afford the deductable.we lost every thing in Katrina the area was bad befor but now its harder. i am a cosmetologist and my son is in college - we go to the emergency room if we realy need a doctor and pay the bill when we can. please help us universal health care works in other places why cant it work for us !my father has ins and... (more)

My wife is in the hospital, Memorial, Gulfport, MS, with terminal cancer. An MRI was taken on March 9, 09 for a back problem. The MRI showed a silver dollar size tumor, which was not made aware to us. My wife had uterine cancer, that she beat, in 07. May 16 another MRI was done and now the tumor is 16cm, the size of a large melon. I asked why, when the tumor was viewed on March 9, that we were not made aware of the tumor and we were told they felt it was insegnifacant. I asked one of her doctors if they had found the tumor when it was... (more)

I AM 84, I AM RETIRED FROM THE US MARINE CORPS AND ALSO FROM CIVILIAN EMPLOYMENT. MY WIFE AND I DEPEND ON MEDICARE AND TRY CARE FOR LIFE. WE HAVE EIGHT MARRIED CHILDREN NUMEREOUS GRAND CHILDREN AND GEAT GRANDCHILDREN WHJO FACE A CRISIS WHEN IT COMES TO MEDICAL CARE. WE NEED TOP FIX IT SO THAT THEY CAN AFFORD MEDICAL CARE WHEN THEY ARE UNFORTUNATE TO NEED IT. GET IT FIXED PLEASE

I don't have a story, but I do know Health care need to be affordable for everyone.

My wife runs a small durable medical equipment company. She has been doing work for medicare for years. Recently, DME companies are required to become acredited to continue providing for medicare/medicaid. This process is geared for large DME companies and is very difficult for a small business. The cost for the process is in the thousands of dollars and puts a strain on small business income. Also, there are several physicians offices who supply DME to their patients. These physicians do not have to go through the acreditation process... (more)

I have 2 daughters w/out health care, even though both work FT. One suffered for SEVEN years w/Psoriasis before finding help and now has painful Psoriatic Arthritis. She finds pain medication wherever she can. The other suffered w/nerve pain in her shoulder for ONE FULL YEAR before she was finally able to find some affordable relief. Both daughters still have no heathcare coverage. PLEASE: we NEED health care coverage for ALL.

Myproblem that I am having is tha tI have no health care. Everytime I try to get some, the premiums are too high for me to afford. My husband and I are getting old and at my work they have no health care plan. I cannot afford health insurance with my income, and with my husbands income. We have morgages to pay, with everything that is involved with living expences. I have been looking around to find some resonable health care insurance and cannot find any that is affordable. I am still trying to pay for my education, for a job that does pay... (more)

I am a registered nurse. I work in an emergency room of a small rural hospital. I take care of both wealthy patients and poor patients as well as those in between. Some have insurance, medicare, or medicaid. Most have no insurance or money. We take care of all patients regardless of their economic status or ability to pay if the physician deems the patient's condition to be an emergency. Many people with toothaches, respiratory infections and some chronic conditions are turned away because they are not "emergencies". People who... (more)

As a grandparent of a child who has lost her job presently and can not qualify for assistance it saddens me to know that a country as powerful as ours can not help children and families when and where it is most needed. There should be assistance to help ALL, but especially those who can not help themselves, the elderly and the children. Let's make a plan to assist and help - if we can bailout those who have funds, why not those who have nothing.

I found out that I was infected with HIV in 1988. I have needed tens-of-thousands of dollars in medical care, and it has been a struggle just to stay healthy, spiritually and physically. Most of my adult life (since 1988, at age 24), I have been treated like a second-class citizen because of my HIV status, and that I am "un-insurable". Once I was in a car accident and told the attending Nurse that I had HIV. No one would clean my cuts and scrapes. When I got home, I still had dirt in my lacerations!

Until 4 years ago I was able to work and pay for what ever medical problem came up. 4 years ago while traveling as a passenger in an "Isuzu Rodeo" I was in was hit by a truck that the State Policeman estamated the speed to be 110 mph. Since then I have no way to pay for my own medical needs. The doors are closed where ever I check for aid. Health care is way to costly and I was never taught to beg...I am in Mississippi, a stste that seems to not care about its people, yet the people keep helping the "GOP" stay in office.... (more)

I am a retired nurse of 35 plus years. I am 58 and a student candidate in the doctoral nursing program. My husband and I are retired and so I continued my health care through cobra for us. We pay approximately $668 dollars a month. I get a retirement check of $1700 a month. My husband does not get any money. His money was left in his 401-k and you know what happen to that when the market crashed. We are both back at work because we could not afford the insurance. I used most of my 40l-k to pay off our bills, help my sister get medical care for... (more)

I was scheduled for a periodic test. My insurance company said that they would cover the cost of the test if it indicated nothing was wrong, but if the test indicated that there was a problem, they would not cover the cost. My insurance company is still disputing costs from visits to the doctor months ago. I receive two notifications from insurance company instead of one. I received a bill for $65 and after investigating, the insurance company owed me $90.00.

Eff Jan, 2009, My doctor, Stanford Owen of Gulfport, MS, changed the way he delivers health care--and the price is so low that it is unbelievable to me how this can work to his benefit. However,prior to iniation of this program, he told me that he would actually make MORE money if only (I forget--10%? 25%?--a very low %) of his current patients agreed to this new plan. Dr. Owen no longer takes health insurance. Instead, he charges $300+ a year for ALL of his services--office visits, vacinations, checkups, CBC, carotid artery scan, his... (more)

Eff Jan, 2009, My doctor, Stanford Owen of Gulfport, MS, changed the way he delivers health care--and the price is so low that it is unbelievable to me how this can work to his benefit. However,prior to iniation of this program, he told me that he would actually make MORE money if only (I forget--10%? 25%?--a very low %) of his current patients agreed to this new plan. Dr. Owen no longer takes health insurance. Instead, he charges $300+ a year for ALL of his services--office visits, vacinations, checkups, CBC, carotid artery scan, his... (more)