I have obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and chronic fatigue syndrome, all of which have seriously damaged my quality of life and made it extremely difficult to work. Right now, I am fortunately insured through the university at which I am a graduate student and lecturer. However, the job market for tenure-track professorships in my field is very tight, and the possibility of having to take adjunct work as a professor after getting my Ph.D is significant. As an adjunct professor, I would not be offered any health care and would be... (more)

Just today I found another fault with my insurance. It does not cover the removal of wisdom teeth. I knew "dental" was not covered (we can't afford that), but it did cover surgery. I thought removing impacted wisdom teeth would come under surgery, but NO, not even if my daughter's impacted wisdom teeth caused excrusiating pain or led to a dangerous infection. They did note that oral surgery is covered in case of an accident, but I'm hoping that won't happen. So I'll have to delay this preventive care until the problems, predicted by... (more)

I have a good, highly skilled job but am stuck with a 'Health Savings Account' that is little more than a fraud to make my employers feel better about gutting our health care. As a result I have not been to the doctor or dentist in seven years.

By simple good fortune, I have had health insurance from work. I had polio as a child and as a result, I needed and had a major back operation that took me from a wheel chair back to work. I've had two hips replaced also. And while I was just recovering from the second hip operation, I discovered I had breast cancer and needed surgery and radiation. It is only by luck that I had health insurance. I think I would be dead now if I hadn't. I certainly would not have been able to have the life I do today without it. I often think about... (more)

I am from a successful family in Madison, WI, and have had health care because of my step-father's job. That is the only reason and I think that is unfair to an individual who cannot benefit from their family's, or loved ones career. Especially when we are talking about peoples lives, not about who got lucky and who didn't. This is about looking after for one another, and that is why I support Health Care for All.

Health care costs are too high becxause of administrative costs and sales reps. Enroll everyone in single pay. Make competitive contracts with the insurance companies to process claims/payments to avoid layoffs provide political sop to insurance companies.

I am a law student in Wisconsin, and lost my health care upon leaving full time employment to go back to school. The university I attend offers a student health care program, but it costs over five times what I paid when I was employed. Now I have no income so I would have to take out private loans to pay for the insurance. Caught in a choice between being uninsured for a few years or having to pay back thousands in loans (on top of the many thousands I have already accrued in education-related debt), I chose to forego the option to get... (more)

I, like members of the U.S. Congress, am fortunate to have excellent health care coverage. However, each day I hear that more and more Americans are without health care coverage, or are paying more and more for coverage that offers fewer and fewer health services. This situation must change; everyone should have access to quality health care, at a price they can afford.

As a small business person it is almost impossible to afford health insurance.

I get my health care at the V.A., which is a prototype for a national health care system. Unfortunately, the care is narrowly defined, dominated by a quasi-religious belief in the healing powers of pharmaceuticals. I have been in intense pain for over a month because I let a V.A. doctor talk me into taking a drug for cholesterol, Simvastatin. This drug is very dangerous, and can debilitate and even kill. Still, the medical profession in the U.S. clings to the official truth that it is all-beneficial, or at least that the "side... (more)

Refusal to most companies due to arthrits, now on expensive ($4000/yr) $5000 deductible with wisconsin state plan. Rarely go to doctor because of prohibitive costs. No dentist for 7 yrs.

Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer. Single payer.

I have been in and out of work for the past 17 years because of changes in trade policies and changes in my field of choice (publishing and broadcasting). I have gone without health insurance far too often, including right now, because I literally can't afford the premiums. This is unacceptable in the richest country in the world. We need to change our priorities from military spending to job creation, repairing our infrastructure, and providing health care for all American citizens.

The Myth of the Modern Medical Miracle and Dreaming About the Future of Healthcare Prominent healthcare reform proposals are virtually useless in achieving the most logical goal, extracting the best possible healthcare value from the American healthcare system. Comprehensive reform can deliver the paradoxical combination of saving hundreds of billions of dollars and producing better health outcomes. The savings could not arrive at a better time as we desperately need to shore up family, corporate, and government solvency. As a former... (more)

I am a physician in Wisconsin. My health care is obtained through my husband's work with the State of Wisconsin and we have a very good plan. Our son who is now 28 years old, was born prematurely and has ADHD and asthma. He has had a difficult time going through adolescence and he didn't go to college, spend 4 years and graduate. It has been a very rocky road of growing up after high school and he happily has been in school and doing well for the last 4 years and will graduate next year. Life has been a struggle with his ADHD. He needs a... (more)

My mother lived on a very limited income in her last years, and had serious health issues that required several prescription drugs. The cost of the medications took almost all of her social security check and caused her great worry about how to live on what she had left. I was a student and unable to be much help to her financially during this time. We need to finally bring the needed resources to our health care system so others like my mother do not have to choose between life- saving drugs and food; no one in this country should have... (more)

I am ridiculously healthy but had Stage 1 breast cancer 9 years ago--and I cannot get ANY health insurance on the open market. Luckily my husband has insurance through his work. But when he wasn't working, my company tried to find a plan to cover me and found that the only plan I coud join was the state high risk pool--to the tune fo $17,000 per year!!! Ouch! And if either of us don't work for a company that provides insurance, I will have no insurance that is affordable.

Healthcare continues to be the highest priority in my life...After 30 years as a healthcare professional in hospital administration, at 68 I find myself working so that I have continued quality healthcare insurance coverage. As I continue being above average in age, I find that things in my body keep wearing out and it costs so very much to have them fixed. Now, in this last month, my legally blind 8 year younger sister was diagnosed with cancer and may have to go to Seattle to get treatment 3 times a week because her insurance may not... (more)

There are MANY "60-65 yr old FULL TIME WORKING PROFESSIONALs, working the kinds of " REAL JOBS" w/ health care that could support a young family----- "POTENTIAL RETIREES---who would love to switch down to part-time, or trade fields to the work they also longed to--but could not afford the financial costs of changing fields while still raising their families--- WHO ARE KEPT "CHAINED" IF YOU WILL _ TO THEIR CURRENT JOBS BECAUSE LACK OF ... (more)

My story is everyone's story--we must have a single payer system. There must be a public component in the new health care plan. Right now we have private insurance companies (the Medical Industrial Complex) controlling health care cost and choices. We need the President and the Congress to step up and give us what 73% of Americans want--a public plan. Prioritize the spending of the tax dollaors of hard working Americans--don;t spend them on unnecessary and unwinable wars, spend them on what should be an essential service the government... (more)