Three Health Care Stories from Wisconsin
Posted by cloe on June 11, 2009 at 04:23 PM
Organizing for America, a project of the DNC, has collected hundreds of thousands of personal health care stories during the last few weeks. Have you shared your story? Here are three from Wisconsin.
Kristine Reger from Muskego, WI: Kristine’s husband owns a small business. He’s always prided himself on providing health insurance for his employees, but this year he’ll spend more than $125,000 on a plan with a $2,500 deductible for just nine people. Skyrocketing health care costs have wiped out his profit margin for the past several years, and it’ll happen again this year unless his business picks up considerably.
Kristine’s sister has a chronic disease. She was airlifted to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for care, and got stuck with a bill for $17,000. Without significant help from family, she never would have been able afford it.
Kristine attended the President’s Health Care Town Hall today in Green Bay. She also participated in a conference call yesterday with Rep. Steve Kagen (WI) and OFA Wisconsin State Director Dan Grandone. We posted the full audio here.
Michelle Winter from Green Bay, WI: Michelle co-owns a local jewelry shop and art gallery in Green Bay. She and her business partner opened the business with a $5,000 loan in 1991. Since that time, her partner has become a diabetic and requires regular check ups and prescription drugs to maintain his health. Their health insurance is $1,368, with a $5,000 deductible – more than 20 percent of what it cost to start their entire business. She’s worried that rising premiums will eventually sink her business.
Roxann Nys from Green Bay, WI: Roxann’s brother worked his whole life, but has never had health insurance. He suffers from diverticulitis and had to have emergency surgery to remove a portion of his intestine in order to save his life. Roxann thinks that if her brother had access to affordable care when he first started to feel sick, he might have been able to avoid expensive surgery. But now, he might never be able to pay off his bill and still can’t afford the care he needs for his chronic illness.
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CDP Resolution Number SAC09.29
Health Care Reform
WHEREAS, access to quality health care is essential for the good health and productivity of every American citizen and qualifies as a human right, not a privilege; and
WHEREAS, the steadily increasing cost of accessing health care is causing financial individual hardships, bankruptcy, and mortgage foreclosures, causing business to be uncompetitive in the world market and making it difficult to decrease the national deficit; and while the U.S. spends more than any other industrialized country for health care, the U.S. has demonstrably inferior outcomes, even for the insured; and
WHEREAS, the current commercial market model mediated by private health insurance corporations must function to create profits for the companies, their administrators and shareholders, creating an unavoidable conflict-of-interest between promoting quality health care and maximizing their profits and currently diverts up to 25% of the insurance premium dollar from medical services and leaves 46 million people uninsured;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party supports the establishment of a universal, single-payer, national health care system in the United States; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that such a system be publicly financed and privately delivered with automatic enrollment of all residents (regardless of age, status of employment, pre-existing condition, or income level) allowing people to choose from any licensed health care provider, providing all appropriate medical services including preventive education, dental care, mental health care, long-term in-home care, and affordable prescription medications.
Authored by: Margaret Budd, Dr. Michael McQuary, Mike Copass, Jerry Malamud,
Ethan James Soutar-Rau, Anita Simons, Jeoffrey B. Gordon, MD MPH, and the
La Jolla Democratic Club’s Focus For Change Health Care Issue Group;
Co-Sponsored by Los Angeles County Democratic Party; (Partial List)
* * *
Adopted by the Democratic State Central Committee of California
AKA "California Democratic Party"
At its Annual State Convention
Sacramento Convention Center
April 26, 2009
And given the current financial condition of California (and the rediculous historical financial decisions that got them there in the first place), you want us to put faith in their recommendations on anything? You're on crack!! Anyone that would put polar bears and butterflies ahead of the People needs real help.
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