I am bi-polar II. My family and employer have been wonderful to me and I have a very successful career and great family. The issues for me are parity of psyciatric and medical conditions in insurance policies. A law was passed that if a company offers psyciatric coverage, it must now be treated as the same as other health issues. However,I have very good employer insurance, but am concerned what I'll do when I retire. I've been with my company for 24 years, but the issue of pre-existing conditions should I move to another company is of... (more)

After I graduate in June, I will have no health insurance coverage. Without health care reform, payments for any health care needs that I might have will be crippling. Why should health insurance companies and private physicians profit enormously from a system that denies millions of people comprehensive coverage? They are profiting from human suffering and must be stopped.

I do not have a horror story. I am healthy and thankfully my wife and son are, as well. I have a good job and good insurance coverage. However, starting in July I will have to pay about $650 a month for dependent coverage. That is for two people, neither of whom have major health problems. Because my wife works, too, we can afford it, but not without making other sacrifices. If my wife loses her job, we will be in deep trouble. And if I was a single parent with three or four kids, I'd be on the verge of taking a $1,400 a month pay cut. My... (more)

My daughter is graduating for school with a MS in teaching but her job doesn't start until the fall-she is paying off student loans and can't afford to buy health insurance for the summer. As an advanced practice RN everyday at my hospital I see pts whose health care choices are limited by their insurance or lack of it because they were laid off and can't afford the premiums. These include mentally ill people who end up homeless on the street because there is insufficient cmoney to pay for their medications even if they can afford therapy... (more)

I don't have a horror story, but I absolutely believe we need single payer health insurance or something very close to that. I've been continuously employed for more than forty years and have had very good health coverage most of that time. (Health insurance didn't cover the birth of my first child, now 37, because the pregnancy was a condition that existed before my insurance started - but that's long ago.) But like most Americans I live every day not knowing whether my youngest son, who is just graduating from college, will be covered... (more)

To put it plainly, I am a student who's mother has an HMO, and there are certain specialists that I need to see that I can not see either because I don't have the money for a referral or because I do not have access to them with the insurance. Health care reform is in order, specifically as it relates to young adults leaving the collegiate world and transitioning into the workforce. Very soon, after graduation, I will have no coverage at all unless I am able to find a job with benefits.

My 66 y/o wife pays Medicare over $500 per month, because she married at 21 y/o and had not accrued enough Social Security credits to qualify for free Medicare until I turn 62 y/o. She and I have paid joint IRS taxes throughout our marriage. Somehow, this doesn't seem right for a law-abiding American citizen born in this country.

I'm a self-employed writer buying my own health insurance. I am lucky to be healthy, but I fear the day when that changes and I wander into the world of pre-existing conditions (read that: when I become uninsurable). We need a health policy that not only makes insurance available and affordable, but we need federal policy that provides more opportunities and incentives for healthy living (support for community gardening and nutrition education, incentives for weight and cholesterol control, promotion of exercise for everyone, etc.). The... (more)

I am a senior on medicare, with diabetes and some of its side issues and getting the treatment I need, sometimes prove to be a challenge.

I am fortunate. As a federal government retiree,I have an excellent health care plan. I want EVERY American to have the same chance for health coverage. I believe that a public health care plan should be included among the options for everyone.

I was underinsured for years after college and during grad school. I consider myself very lucky to never get very sick because I would have become bankrupt. However, I recently witnessed my friend get a life-threatening staph infection and almost die. He luckily lived, but his medical bills are now over $100,000 AND HE ACTUALLY HAD INSURANCE. Something needs to change ASAP.

I have been self-employed for more than 30 years and have had to pay for all my own health insurance costs during that time. I have had an extremely mild case of type II diabetes for 18 years,which I control with diet and a few drugs. During this period, as I have a pre-existing condition, it has been impossible for me to even change health care providers; I have had to pay high premiums,all doctor bills and all my prescriptions. My deductible began at $500, but to keep my premiums down, I was forced to keep raising it - to $3,000, even as my... (more)

My sister lives in Memphis TN recently had a stroke. She lost her job more than two years ago so she was without health insurance. When she arrived at the emergency room to receive treatment she was refused care because she did not have health insurance or the money to pay for the visit. She had stop taking her medication for her hypertension, which contributed to her stroke, because she couldn’t afford to buy the medication. So she went more than two years without taking her medication. The hospital sent her home with all of the symptoms... (more)

I am a husband, father, and pastor. My wife and I are constantly weaving ourselves through the maze of a healthcare system that ultimately serves the insururer, and not the insured. While our primary physicians are dedicated to serving, they too spend far too much time trying to navigate the same system, and are often forced to reduce services because of liability insurance they can't afford, thus removing qualified and dedicated doctors from a community that needs their expertise. The system requires desperate measures in the same way the... (more)

My youngest, Mary, has epilepsy. She is 20 and studying art at Humboldt State University. When she graduates, we will no longer be able to cover her under our family health insurance policy. Many young people just out of school are not able to get jobs that include health care benefits. Without health care we don't know how we will be able to pay for the medicines that control her seizures. Because the doctors cannot completely control her seizures, she sometimes needs emergency room visits like last year when she had a seizure on the stairs... (more)

Our close friend has rare form of leukemia, he has already had many surgeries and my mother is giving him a kidney in a few weeks. He is one of the lucky ones, his family and friends have the resources to care for him, he and we know many like him who have not been so lucky.

As a current student I am scared to make the switch from depending on my parents health care to depending on my own. In these economic times my focus will be finding a job or getting money for grad school, the last thing that i have time to worry about is what happens if I get sick? How will i pay for it?

The costs of health insurance for my wife and myself have grown by at least 10% per year. This is unsustainable. At some point we must cancel our insurance, as it will be unaffordable.

Second opinions and consulting on difficult conditions could be much easier without the great amount of red tape it now entails.

We need preventive care and food quality work. Home economics skills to prevent all the health problems.