I work at a Community Health Center in Worcester, MA and I also go to school college full time for nursing. In the past year our health center has switched its employees (about 350) from different health plans because we were no longer able to cover the costs. Every year I see my 50 cent raise wasted on the increase of preminus I have to pay each week in order to have a health plan. Its hard to see those 50 - 60 bucks put away for a Health Plan that I barely use -- and when I do use it I have to pay the copay of 20 bucks. As a health center we... (more)

I am a medical student who is trying to pay my loans for medical school and have found that health insurance (for someone that is preparing to enter the health care field) is near unaffordable. But, I an make ends meet and assure that I have insurance for myself. What about the millions of people who cannot? I hope, I plead, that when I earn my MD, the health insurance options will be better than they are now.

My father, a retired engineer and WWII vet who went college on the GI Bill, passed away in December of '08 at the age of 86 from a brain tumor. He had been diagnosed 8 weeks earlier, in October. It was a tough journey, but what I found to be absolutely amazing was that his medical treatments (no matter that he was terminal) would be covered, but once he decided to decline radiation and enter a hospice home (because he didn't want to be a burden on any of his children), he had to pay out of his own pocket for his hospice room and board. ... (more)

My wife had to use our health insurance pretty heavily last year battling cancer. The results were extremely positive and the care was excellent. We are covered by private insurance from my employer. I would not want to think what last year would have been like if I had not had insurance. Health coverage is a basic right for everyone in this country.

I am an newly unemployed student who also happens to be a parent. I do not have health care because I cannot afford it. I have a health issue that can be easily corrected but since I do not have health insurance, I cannot afford to have it done. The problem is that this simple problem can lead to a much bigger problem if it does not get corrected. I am sure there are millions of Americans in this same situation. How could this be a problem in the worlds most advanced industrialized country in the world? Health care reform needs to happen now!

I have been without healthcare for almost 5 years; until now because I am unemployed . Massachusetts enacted a law that required me purchase health coverage that I could not afford for health coverage that I could not afford to use!!! We all know that preventive care is much less costly than dealing with a medical problem when it is out of control. I will not vote for anyone who is against President Obama's plans for affordable health care for all American Citizens. And I will not vote for anyone who comes up with a STUPID plan such as letting... (more)

My employer, Fidelity Investments, provides an affordable health insurance plan with three providers to choose from. My insurance provider is Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which is a nonprofit health management organization. Its one of the better health insurance companies, from what I understand. The problem with the insurance is that it does not seem to cover many relatively-low-cost treatments that could prevent exponentially more expensive chronic problems down the road. For example, insurance does not cover my orthotic insoles, or my... (more)

My little brother is 13 years old. He has Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, and was born premature. My mother and step father have jobs that get the family by and at a time when my brother was having multiple seizures every couple of months, the family could not find any type of help with some of his medical bills. They would say the household made too much. We are not rich, we are not even close to rich and we could not get the proper insurance. This is why I believe America should take a stand with Health Care Reform.

I have had Systemic Lupus since I was 13. It is an auto-immune disorder that causes my immune system to attack my own body. It runs in my family, and my mother also has the disease. I am 22 now and several months ago, I took ill due to a flare up of the Lupus. It happened at the worst time, I had been out of school working so I had not been covered under my parent's insurance and I had not been working at my job long enough to be covered under my employer's insurance. In Massachusetts you are required to have health insurance, however it... (more)

My first year working at IBM we had an HMO Tufts which provided great care for a reasonable price and low 20$ copayments. For some reason the premiums on this plan skyrocketed 50% (considerably higher than other plans offered). Subsequently Tufts was dropped by IBM. We are now forced to choose either a very restrictive HMO (Fallon) or a completely a-la-carte BlueCross. The Blue Cross PPO/PPO+/EPO all have risks/benefits. I chose PPO+ for maximum choices of doctors. The premiums are reasonable, but I have to pay a coinsurance of... (more)

I am insured but my brother is not covered in the same manner because he only has a part-time job. All jobs should have health care benefits so that all people can take care of themselves with proper support. The only way I made it through graduate school was to work for Starbucks who gave all its part-time workers health insurance. Why can't all empolyers do the same? And also why does my premium have to increase each year when my salary doesn't compensate for it?

I HAVE RHEUMATOID ARTRITIS WHICH IS A CHRONIC AND OFTEN PAINFUL DISEASE. I HAVE HAD THIS FOR TWENTY YEARS AND AM ON MULTIPLE MEDICATIONS. IN DECEMBER OF 2008, I FELL AND BROKE MY HIP, REQUIRING A TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENT. I AM ONLY 56 AND WILL NEED CONTINUED MEDICAL CARE FOR LIFE. I AM LUCKIER THAN MOST AS I HAVE A GOOD HEALTH CARE PLAN AND ACCESS TO GOOD MEDICAL CARE. HOWEVER, MANY DON'T. I WORK IN A SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCY WHERE MANY ARE POOR, HOMELESS AND LACK HEALTH CARE SERVICES.

My mom in law and my sister in law's husband are both currently in rehab type nursing homes- she is afraid that she will lose her home as a result. This lady works 12 hours a day, spends 5 - 10 hours a week working in her faith and going to meetings of it, is a Viet Nam era Vet herself (late era) and between running to see them - esp. her husband who is in a facility where she has to keep checking up on the staff and make sure he's okay - is in fear of losing her home or her mom losing her home to pay for this. She's been trying to get... (more)

My story is about the dismay with which I find that the US system is inferior to those of Canada and the Netherlands and most of Scandinavia when it comes to coordinated planning and preventative medicine since all our staff support is tied up in trying to avoid or shift costs. The question is no longer why insurance costs so much- we know how to solve that problem cutting it by about a third by sinmple removing the redundant fiscal bureaucracy and preplacing that with a single payer system. But after that the real challenge is to address... (more)

It's the phone call in the middle of the night that no parent ever wants to receive. Your son, a student at George Washington University, has been taken by ambulance to the emergency room. The doctor on the other end of the line explains, as you desperately wake-up into the nightmare, that in a bicycle accident your child has landed on his jaw, has broken almost all the bones in his face and has lost many teeth. He's lucky; there was no spinal damage, no brain injury, no eye involvement, and he's alive. But even after 5 hours of surgery, and 8... (more)

In looking ahead to the near future, I see that even with medicair, I will be spending all my disposible income on a medex policy. Many middle income retirees, will have no disposible incom left after medical/insurance costs, and hence, no life at all during their declining years.

March of 2008 I started getting tired and gaining weight. Unusual for me to not have any energy so I went to the Dr, my primary care physician, and with that visit started a road not easy to forget. The ultimate diagnoses was Neuroendocrine cancer. My road is splattered with incorrect diagnoses, uncaring and flippant physicians, loss of a job and therefore loss of health insurance, uncaring incompetent social workers and all I can say is THANK GOD for Dana Farber Hospital in Boston. But I STILL don't have insurance, and a pile of bills I will... (more)

I am a college-educated, single working mother of one, earning just a few hundred dollars too much yearly to qualify for premium assistance for the Massachusetts mandated health insurance. My only debts are school loans and a condo mortgage of about $600 monthly; I responsibly pay off my credit card every month. Paying for this health insurance now obliges me to live hand to mouth, unable to build a savings and hardly able to address periodic additional expenses like dental work or a continuing education class. I see private insurance... (more)

I worked in healthcare for many years and know that our system is badly broken. A friend had a bad accident, and needed multiple surgeries on his jaw and face. His insurance company refused to pay anything, saying it was "all dental". My experience is that administrative and bureaucratic costs, with our current system, are much greater than in countries with a government run plan, making a mockery of the tired old arguments against government involvemet. As someone who benefited directly from the factors which keep costs high, I know... (more)

Damn - in India when I am sick I walk down to the nearby doctor's clinic. There are no wait times, appointments, big staff, no big buildings. Clinic is a room where the doc examines the patient. Outside the room he talks to us about the problem and bills us (no big bills here) then and there. No credit cards, no reminders, no collection calls. I pay the doctor when I am sick. I dont pay insurance companies when I am healthy (not to mention start paying more when I am ill). The healthcare system looks ridiculous to me simply because you are... (more)