Health Care Reform - For Me, It's Personal!

President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress tonight on the issue of health care reform, and during his speech, he recounted several stories of Americans who suffered, even to the point of death, from inadequate health insurance or from insurance company abuse of or indifference toward Americans needing health care.

Allow me to tell you Laura's story. Laura was my wife. She died on July 27, 2009. Her death certificate says she died from complications of pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs. It might also have said that she died because she didn't have health insurance.

When Laura couldn't work any more, she lost health insurance coverage. Yes, she was offered continuing coverage through COBRA, but we couldn't afford the $1000/month premiums, most of which had been paid by her employer while she was working.

Laura had a pre-existing condition - her lung disease - so it would have been impossible to obtain coverage as an individual. I also have a pre-existing condition, type 2 diabetes.

The good news is that, as Massachusetts citizens, we could apply to the state for either the fully funded "MassHealth" insurance, i.e., Medicaid, or for the state-subsidized "Commonwealth Care" private health insurance.

The bad news is that the application process takes a long time, several months in fact, before a determination can be made on whether we'd be eligible. While our applications were pending, Laura and I were covered only for emergency medical care, under the Massachusetts Health Safety Net. Were we to visit a doctor's office or seek any care other than emergency care, we had to pay 60 percent of health care costs.

So, Laura and I were forced to "ration" ourselves when it came to health care. We both canceled doctor's appointments we had previously scheduled. Laura canceled a March appointment that she had with a pulmonologist. Only when her breathing problems became much more acute in mid-July did she finally visit such a specialist.

The pulmonologist, recognizing Laura's serious condition, prescribed a home oxygen regimen for her. And the very next day, a representative of the company that supplies oxygen to patients' homes called us to make arrangements for delivery.

In the course of our phone conversation with the oxygen supplier's rep, he asked us what type of health insurance we had. We told him that Laura's application for MassHealth was pending, as it was at the time. After a short pause, the oxygen company rep said, "You know, I forgot to get some information from the doctor. Let me call him (the doctor was actually a 'her'), and I'll call you right back."

He never called us back, and it was apparent that his company wasn't going to supply oxygen to an uninsured person!

Two days later, on an early Saturday morning, I had to take Laura to the Emergency Room, because she could barely breathe. Eight days later, she died, a victim of delayed medical treatment, no health insurance coverage, and a system that puts profits before medicine.

Bad things like this don't always happen to other people. And bad things like this will continue to happen to people - to you, to me, to others - until our health insurance system is reformed, once and for all.

Last week, I visited Laura's family to mourn with them and to honor Laura's memory. They live in Northern Nevada, and like many folks in that part of the country, they are opposed to Mr. Obama and his proposals for health care reform. One of their arguments: "We don't want the government taking over health care."

They're adamant that if Mr. Obama has his way, some government bureaucrat will be deciding what kind of health care people will get.

As we were having this inter-family debate, my brother-in-law was awaiting a decision from his health insurance company as to whether he could have a CT scan to help diagnose the problem causing his neck pain. His doctor wanted the test, but again, the final go or no-go decision was the insurance company's.

Consider that for a moment, if you will. Here are good people arguing against some government bureaucrat making health decisions for people, but they are content with a system that has a corporate bureaucrat making those same health decisions, a decision that probably depended upon the profit motive.

Somehow or other, I'd feel a lot better knowing that profits don't enter into the health care equation! Wouldn't you?

Look, here's the bottom line...

There's room for discussion in the health care debate, but this is no time to surrender to the status quo.

How many more Lauras need to die?