My daughter had type 1 diabetes from the age of 3 until the age of 23. The medical bills were tremendous. I was employeed with insurance for the vast majority of that time and yet every year less was covered and the premiums increased. The total 20 year bill would be staggering. She recieved a pancreas transplant from the Mayo clinic this year and is now doing fine. Kids with type 1 diabetes require a massive amount of supplies and treatment. This would have forced someone to leave a small business in order to provide healthcare for their... (more)

I am a Family doctor and have reminders every day of how our healthcare system falls short of improving the health of our citizens. Primary care needs to be the cornerstone of any reform and health promotion also needs to be stressed. I look forward to President Obamas bold leadership.

High cost and low wages insure that I work a job for the sole purpose of paying insurance premiums. The coverage is minimal, and does not address the true cost of health care. If my husband were to pass away I would have to immediately be without health insurance.

I saw my father refused health care when in need. Mostly I believe that our country owes this minimum service to its citizens.

My wife had breast cancer about 5 years ago. I have high blood sugar. Our costs to insure my wife and I and our 3 children are around $13,000 with high deductibles. Because my wife had breast cancer only the State Pool will insure her. Something needs to be done.

I am 62 and retired but I have no health insurance whatsoever. Private health insurance is too expensive at my age to be affordable. Therefore, I'm praying that I can stay healthy until age 65 when I'll qualify for Medicare. Medicare is an awesome program and it is needed for persons younger than 65 as will. We are strong supporters of President Obama's public health plans.

I live in Texas, where about 30% of working age people don't have health insurance. I know many productive, working people who can't get insurance at any price because they are middle aged and have previous health problems that, although minor, represent an "underwriting risk". These people forego important health services and live in fear of medical bankruptcy. On the health provider side, hospitals are hemmorhaging money for care provided to the uninsured. It really has reached crisis proportions. Congress needs to have the... (more)

I have medicare, Blue Cross & Blue Shield, and Tricare for Life but I don't have a big choice of providers. Some providers have too many sick people and some only care about their experiments and not the sick people. My best doctor is leaving this area in July.

i have struggle with what im allowed as a disabled person with health care options,recently my fiance has begun a battle with cancer,with her not working,and no choice but to pay now inflated insurance,we have found ourselves in a tight bind.

Where do I start? My husband and I cannot afford to pay the outrageous cost of health insurance premiums for ourselves, so we only have our 20 month old daughter covered. And even if we could afford it, neither of us can get it because of pre-existing conditions. I almost died from asthma in November 2005. It escalated into a 2 week hospital stay and a $60,000+ bill. The cost of my asthma medication is over $300 per month. My credit is ruined because of unpaid medical bills. I also need spinal surgery, have arthritis and the list goes on. The... (more)

If I lived in America, I doubt i would have health care. I have lived in France for five years, where, if I were to become sick or have an accident, I would be covered. The health care I get here is one of the reasons I stay in France. Living in a country that takes care of its sick and elderly, exentuates to me how backwards the American system is. Health care could not be a for profit industry available only to the upper tax brackets. When will American government start making choices to take care of its citizens?

I work as a nurse and am a single parent to 4 children and also take care of my mother. i do not have healthcare nor do my children. I tried applying for CHIPs and made 600$ too much yearly. I tried going full time and lost $10.00/hr and was not able to provide food for my house. I believe I should be able to provide healthcare for my household and provide food for my family.Instead of choosing whether we eat or can go to the doctor or dentist for appropriate care.

I pay as much for my families health care insurance as I pay to live in my home.

Mr President, I know that for myself I have a very minor major med policy with a $5,000 ded which costs me $321.70 per month. This might not seem like much, but the policy pays no doctor's office visits or testing outside of a hospitalization. So, I have found that I am not taking preventative care because of the cost. I am considering canceling the policy & allowing the chips to fall where they may. At least at that time, I will be able to afford to visit my GP & have some testing done. I do work full time for St Stephen's... (more)

For 24 years my husband worked for a company as a machinist. While his pay did increase, so did the number of office employees who benefitted from his labor. We always had health care. Now, he doesn't work for the company(as so many others who were laid off around this country to give companies a chance to lower wages and increase profit.) We are both in our late 50's. My husband had a brain aneurysm and was operated on when we had no insurance. We are in bad financial standings. I have rheumatoid arthritis and have Humira provided with... (more)

I have hep.c and other medical problems. I am unable to work and my husband is unemployed. His grandmother helps us. I have been denied S.S.I. several times and now I am in need of a colon exam. Indigent Health won't help me anymore because they say that his grandmother helps us too much!! I figure that when I get bad enough I'll have to depend on the emergency room which refered me to another Dr. to begin with , I can't afford. So looks like I am stuck with what I have and many unpaid bills. Oh, I tried the clinic here in town and they... (more)

I find that healthcare is too expensive to have and so many people need healthcare. I am a big supporter for a better health care. I worked for an organization that was small that didn't even offer any health insurance even medically and reason I asked was because we were a small company and it was too exepensive to offer it's employees

I developed normal pressure hydrocephalus at age 65. Without Medicare and Medicaid to pay for hospitalization, medications, neurosurgery, and ongoing care, I would be dead by now. Some of my friends who work very hard cannot afford any health care at all. It is ridiculous that one must be very rich or very poor to get the health care one needs just to stay alive. It is not right that most people who live in the middle of the socio-economic spectrum cannot get the health care they so badly need. I applaud your health care programs. ... (more)

Well in 2001 i lived in florida. I was attending a school for visauley impaired. Then they found a brain tumor had surgrey took out half off the tumor. In the state od Florida the medi-caid paid for all my meds. for seziures and the dibetes, heart problems 18 sripts a month. Now we moved home to texas i can only get3 scripts a month here so i have to do without seziure meds or do without insulins shot for a month.

I have a 82 year old Dad that is a veteran so he goes to the VA center to get treated for most things. He had problems with his eyes and the doctor at the VA told him that it wasn't bad enough to have surgury so he went outside the VA to have work done. Medicare paid part of it, but when you live off of Social Security paying the balances off is very hard. My mother died in September 2008 and she has hospital bills and doctor bills that have stacked up and I am single and live on a very tight imcome so its hard for me to help much. I have... (more)