WI Voices Tell House of Health Care Crisis

Press Release

WI Voices Tell House of Health Care Crisis

For the fourth straight year, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin brought the words and worries of Wisconsin's uninsured to the halls of Congress. As the nation observes Cover the Uninsured Week 2007 (www.covertheuninsuredweek.org), Baldwin took to the floor of the House of Representatives to draw attention to the national crisis by telling the stories of Wisconsinites who face extraordinary and devastating challenges due to a lack of health care coverage.

"The lack of comprehensive and affordable health care coverage affects people in every Congressional district in every state. Currently, almost 47 million Americans have no health insurance and countless more are underinsured. And that number continues to rise. We must no longer turn our backs while millions lack access to health care. I am committed to achieving the goal of health care for all," Baldwin said.

During time set aside after the evening's last votes in the House of Representatives, Baldwin read into the Congressional Record the first person accounts of residents of Baraboo, Cross Plains, Deerfield, Fitchburg, Janesville, Madison, Mount Horeb, Stoughton, and Waterloo, who are struggling and suffering without an insurance safety net.

"We cannot turn a deaf ear to our constituents' pleas for help. I invite my colleagues to join me in working on this most pressing domestic priority to provide affordable health care for all Americans," Baldwin said.

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin is leading a bipartisan working group of Members of Congress that has introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to break the gridlock in Congress and enable states to pilot a variety of universal health care proposals.

Among the constituents who contacted Baldwin:

Eva from Madison wrote: "I am contacting you in regards to my desperate need for public health care. I am a grad student. I recently sprained my ankle playing soccer and had to go to the emergency room for x-rays. My bill came out to $1,242.50 because I can only afford measly insurance that only has catastrophic coverage."

Suzanne from Stoughton wrote: "It is time, time to have the government deal with health care. We are covered under COBRA, which will run out in March. The cost is going from $500 per month to $900 per month…Please, let people over 60 buy into Medicare. It is impossible to find a job that offers health insurance."

Sylvia from Fitchburg wrote that she was uninsured when she was hospitalized with a need for an appendectomy. Even after a charitable reduction of her bill, she still owed more than $11,000 to the hospital. Sylvia chips away at this bill sending in the most she can, $20 to $50 a month.

Roberta from Janesville wrote: "My insurance costs have caused us many heartaches, with us owing more money than what needs to be paid. As a result, I will not get a needed medical procedure done. Something drastically needs to change in the United States of America."

Patricia from Madison wrote: "We need to fix health care. I have to choose between heat and food and medications. I have lost 80 pounds because of this. Please help."

Heather from Waterloo wrote: "We live a modest, middle-class life, managing to always have what we need except for health care coverage. My husband has excellent health care at his job, but for me to also be covered by his plan, we would need to pay nearly $400 per month. That is two-thirds as much as our home mortgage."

Brad from Mount Horeb wrote: "I strongly believe that we need a national health care plan to insure all Americans…I recently attempted to switch insurance providers. The insurance companies will insure me, but they will not insure my daughter for any type of treatment for her asthma for 3 years, along with no drug coverage for life. The policy I was requesting had a $10,000 deductible, yet they still refused the coverage."

Lisa from Madison wrote: "I am a very healthy person, and my husband and children are very healthy. We cannot get insurance. I think everyone should attempt to gain an individual health policy just to see how impossible it is. I am not a risk. Really, I am not. I am terrified right now because we are uninsured."

Carol from Madison wrote: "Not long ago, my best friend died at age 42 because of ovarian cancer because she did not have health insurance and waited too long to see what was causing all of her symptoms. Yes, people in America actually die from not having health insurance."

Darla from Fitchburg wrote: "If I don't get some sort of health insurance, I will need to stop all treatments, as I have no money to pay for doctors' services. My prescription drugs will have to stop, as I will not be able to pay for them either. What can I do?"

Kimberly from Madison wrote: "My husband recently started his own business…we are without health insurance. I am 5 months pregnant, and we have a 2-year-old son. Because of my preexisting condition, we cannot buy affordable health coverage. COBRA would cost us $1,200 per month. I am currently applying for Medicaid and other forms of public assistance as a last resort. This is ridiculous…what is most frightening to me is the chance that my son might get sick, or my baby might be born with expensive complications while we are uninsured."

David from Cross Plains wrote: "My wife and I have been self-employed for over 18 years, and have paid thousands of dollars for health insurance premiums. As of a few months ago, we had to drop out and are now without health insurance. The cost is completely out of reach. In fact, it is nuts. Now that I am 50 years old, it is not a matter of if I will have health problems, it is a matter of when. Tammy, we will lose everything we have ever worked for. So much for the American dream. Now we look forward to dying broke and possibly homeless."

Victor from Stoughton wrote: "My wife can only work part time because of her health. Her employer offers a generic policy that costs only $3.97 per week and requires no background check. This policy covers basically nothing. Medical supplies, check-ups, doctors' visits necessary on a routine basis for my wife to survive are now not covered. My wife is uninsurable because of her health, and we have been turned down for health insurance that we have applied for. We cannot believe that this is happening."

Ron from Deerfield wrote: "I was on COBRA insurance for 3 years, which ended this past fall. I spent from March until September trying to get private insurance, but could not because of my neck injury. I was, in effect, looked at and dismissed by 33 private insurance companies…I was finally insured through disability and Medicare. The sad reality of it is that if I want to try to work full-time again, I cannot, because in doing so it would cost me the only insurance options that I have left."

Susan from Baraboo wrote: "I am writing you today regarding health insurance coverage for single people with no children…I am 42, and last September I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In January of this year, the company that I worked for informed us that they would be closing down. I was laid off in December while I was out due to my cancer treatment. I have been searching for health care coverage everywhere because my COBRA will be going up, and I am on unemployment and barely able to pay the $244.76 for the coverage now. I cannot get insurance because of the breast cancer…I am at a crossroads because I have no avenue for assistance when it comes to health care."

Janet from Portage wrote: "I have a 53-year-old brother who…fell and needs surgery on his shoulder to repair it. He has no job, no money, and no insurance. We started looking for a program to help him. There are none that we can find. There is nothing to get him help to get his shoulder fixed. But after it heals wrong and he is disabled because of it, then there are programs to help him. They won't help him get it fixed so he can find a good job."

Gail from Janesville wrote: "My husband recently lost his job. He applied for over 100 positions, only to be told that he lacked a college degree, or he is overqualified, or that they can only pay $8 an hour. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in June of 1998, and again in 2003. I have gone through breast cancer twice, and have undergone a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. COBRA has run out, and without a stable income, we cannot afford to pay the premiums for our own health care policy. My husband is 59 and I am 58, and we have no medical coverage. I have looked into every insurance company and get turned down because of my medical history. All our lives we have paid into these insurance companies, only to be turned away when we need the coverage the most."

Finally, Laurie, a fourth grade teacher in the Madison public school system recently had a student fall during recess and break his foot. Laurie wrote: "As he was waiting, in extreme pain and cold, for the school nurse to get to him, he cried to an assistant waiting with him, 'I can't go to the doctor. We don't have insurance.'"

"That a 9- or 10-year-old boy should even think something like this is an atrocity," Baldwin said.

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