I am a 24 year old single female working as a social worker and living with Crohn's disease. I had to fight tooth and nail to be accepted to a health insurance plan and can barely afford my monthly payment for health insurance. My benefits hardly cover anything I need, and if I were to lose my job, and something health-wise would happen to me, I would likely be in a horrible debt situation for the rest of my life. My mother has an immune deficiency disease as well. She needs to be able to have adequate health care when she retires. Please put... (more)

My partner and I were attacked and beaten in New Orleans in Feb 2009. Although we both have health insurance through our employers, we both had substantial deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses associated with our injuries. My costs (after insurance) were close to $5000. If I had been without insurance, the costs would have been over $30,000. $12,000 of that cost was just for an operating room. It doesn't include the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, just the room for a couple of hours. $12,000. This incident has wiped out the little... (more)

I personally am unable to afford healthcare for myself and worry everyday that something may happen to me to the extent that I don't do any dangerous activities.

This is not as much of a story, per se, just more of an acknowledgment. As an artist, I am one of the lucky ones to find full time employment at a University. Most of my friends, however, do not have the luxury of employment-payed health care. Most artists and designers work freelance jobs and have to pay for their own health insurance. Its a scenario to see some of my incredibly talented friends go further and further into debt only to pay health care bills. Maybe they could excel further in their creativity if they are not worried about... (more)

My son and daughter-in-law lost their house and went bankrupt. He is out of work. Their little girl, my granddaughter (age 3), has just had

I've been laid off and I am afraid to get sick or injuried.

My daughter, Jennifer, teaches in a low-income area in VA. Her students often arrive with toothaches (or NO teeth!), skin conditions, fatigue, obesity, etc. It's very, very difficult to engage these students in the curriculum when they are ill or suffering pain. Their parent(s) cannot afford getting them to a doctor. It impacts their entire future. This is not OK.

My health care story is about my son, Will. When he was 10 years old, we learned that he has Juvenile Diabetes (Type I). This was very difficult for a 10 year old. He learned that he had to take four shots a day for the rest of his life and that he has to test his blood sugar frequently. For the first three months following his diagnosis, he cried himself to sleep at night. I would like to say that managing his illness has become easier for him. Unfortunately, it has not. Without health insurance, the monthly cost of his medicines exceeds... (more)

I cannot afford insurance due to a pre condition.

Health care should be available and affordable to Americans who are not employed or who do not have employers that provide health care. Americans should not be pressured to stay at a job that does not suit them for the sole purpose of keeping health insurance for either themselves or their spouse.

I was 18 when I was first diagnosed as being Bipolar. It has now been just over ten years and I have only now, finally found a way to pay for my medications and have been stable for the longest period in my life, two years. Before this I was on medicine after medecine, with doctor after doctor for numerous reasons, mainly that I was still a full time student with only a part time job and no insurance. Too old to be on my parent's but "not sick enough" to qualify for medicaid. This is not just my story it is that of so many of... (more)

I am a full time student and I cannot get health care coverage with my husband. The cost alone will cut his take home pay in half which will not be much to live on. So I cannot go for a regular doctors visit because we do not have the money to do so.

In the last 2 1/2 years, I have lost my Mother, 2 brothers and a niece....2 of them to insufferable cancer. It's a shame to watch people on their death bed worry about the finances they're leaving behind. I am a self employed person, and making it through this tough economy, but I am rewarded with outrageous, individual insurance premiums. My other alternative is to pay the sky high fees our medical professionals are charging. Health care should not be a luxury. Someone needs to fix our system.

I am unemployed and like many families, illness can happen at any time, I have medicaid and I have found a lot of physicians don't except medicaid . I also have a daughter who is uninsured and can't afford health care so this is a real problem and I feel all citizens should have access to health care rich are poor.

I don't know how my mother would survive were it not for senior health care. She is a widow and has never worked and is surving on my father's benefits. I am now under doctor's care due to an illness and because I have worked many years, I may be okay at retirement. But many are not okay. Please do all you can to keep health care cost at a reasonable level. Especially for retirees, I plan to be one in a year.

I don't have a personal story, however, I do have an observation. I once worked for a large health insurance company where the wife of our CEO was diagnosed with cancer. During one of our senior leadership meetings he shared how fortunate they were that he had ties to key leaders in the health care industry who were able to put he and his wife in touch with some of the best physicians in the country. What struck me, was not that he had "access" to industry experts, but rather that he failed to recognized that his... (more)

There has been times were I could not make my makes and then I am left with high bill I can't afford.

I can't get any teeth because my health plan does not cover dential exspence. Dentail plates are very high in coast.

I have been involved in advocacy for so many uninsured people with serious health issues such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and many other illnesses. it has been an eye openner and the president's plan will solve a lot of these problems.

I got into an accident the beginning of my freshman year at Saint Louis University. My insurance didn't cover my bill and I had to get a CAT SCAN. The bill totaled 3,000 of which I did not and still don't have.