Martin in Harrisonville, Pennsylvania

Martin in Harrisonville, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Martin has been out-of-work since last year. “Obviously I have no insurance,” he said. He has insulin-dependent diabetes and gets some healthcare through the Pennsylvania ACCESS card. He explained that, “If I go back to work, however, I’ll lose my medical care.”

“That's a disincentive to work,” I said.

“Sure is … I need to stay under twenty hours a week to get medical care. If I work more, there’s no job, no way I could pay for the healthcare and medicines. I can’t just drop the insulin.”

Jim in Bedford, Pennsylvania

Jim in Bedford, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

“I would call myself a fiscal conservative,” Jim told me as we sat together discussing healthcare in his living room. “I believe that health savings accounts, HSAs, and patient involvement in the decisions will be important to bring costs under control.” He added that in his experience, once health benefits are provided, it’s “very difficult to backtrack.”

He’s worked in government for 32 years and is currently retired. “Personally, I think the government plan, if made available to all, would work well. I think that would be easy to implement. It allows choice, there’s already a mechanism to collect premiums. and there could be some income tiering.”

Jo in Bedford, Pennsylvania

Jo in Bedford, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

“I think that it’s possible to have a very basic plan as a public good.” Jo told me she’s seen examples of that and she “believes it’s a good use of taxpayer money.” But she also realizes how it could get out-of-hand. “It all depends on how and what ‘basic’ is defined as,” she said. “Sometimes that’s too abstract.”

Gloria in Harrisonville, Pennsylvania

Gloria in Harrisonville, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Gloria is the owner of Hollinshead grocery. She told me how the grocery, a family business, has been in Harrisonville for over a hundred years. Being self-employed, She hasn’t had health coverage for more than twenty years, ever since her husband’s company went out of business. “It’s just too expensive to get insurance being self-employed,” she told me.

Three years ago, her husband had a heart attack and died. She explained that paying for his care, even in the midst of grieving, was not easy. “A Harrisburg doctor accepted a ‘payment plan’,” and she also applied for Hill-Burton funds to pay for testing and other hospital costs. “Things were not easy,” she added, with a touch of melancholy.

Mike in Harrisonville, Pennsylvania

Mike in Harrisonville, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Mike, a customer at Hollinshead’s Grocery, lost his job at Caterpillar in February and now is without insurance. “COBRA was much too expensive,” he said. His unemployment check was $325 a week and health coverage cost over $400 a month. His children, “fortunately,” he told me, are covered through the state (ACCESS program). He seemed calm as he explained this predicament.

“My wife just got diagnosed with Lyme disease, though—a tick-bite right here in our back yard.” Eyes perked up among the others sitting about the grocery. He told me, “We’re paying cash for the lab bill.” It had originally been $307 but they were able to get it discounted to $187. “The doctor's bill was $80—and that's just for the diagnosis,” he added. “For the actual treatment, we’re dependin’ on free samples.”

Dr. Gurel to arrive in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, July 26

Dr. Ogan Gurel to will arrive in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, July 26, after walking almost 700 miles from Chicago on behalf of health care reform

Throughout his “Walk for Health Care, “ Chicagoan has heard from
everyday Americans about the need for health care reform

For immediate release

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Chicago, IL—Dr. Ogan Gurel will arrive in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, July 26, as he completes the “Walk For Health Care,” which began when he departed Daley Plaza in his hometown of Chicago, IL, on Saturday, June 27. Throughout his journey Dr. Gurel has met everyday Americans who have shared their own health care stories, which reinforce the need for major health care reform. Dr. Gurel has shared those stories on his blog, http://walk4healthcare.org and via Twitter (http://twitter.com/walk4healthcare). Upon arriving in the nation’s Capitol Dr. Gurel hopes to meet with members of Congress and share the stories he has picked up along the way.

“Along the way I have met with hundreds of people and gathered stories of health care concerns that absolutely must be heard by the lawmakers in Washington, D.C.,” said Dr. Gurel. “I believe the health care reform bills being debated on Capitol Hill may very well be the most important pieces of legislation since the Civil Rights era.”

Dr. Gurel, who has walked along Lincoln Highway (US Route 30) for the majority of this trip, came up with the idea of the walk not in an effort to uphold any particular policy position or piece of legislation, but rather to bring out the voice of the people and to advance the principles of universality and affordability as a framework for moving the health care debate forward.

Upcoming stops on the Walk For Health Care include: Everett, PA on July 21; Breezy Point, PA on July 22; Hagerstown, MD on July 23; Frederick, MD, on July 24; Gaithersburg, MD on July 25; and Washington, DC on July 26.

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About Dr. Ogan Gurel

Dr. Gurel, originally from New York City and a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, is a physician educated at Harvard University and the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed surgical internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and having also worked as a health care consultant, an international medical relief physician (in Macedonia during the NATO campaign and in Turkey after the 1999 earthquake), a medical device company CEO, and a basic biomedical researcher, Dr. Gurel has seen virtually all sides of health care both in the U.S. and abroad. He has been a patient (both insured and uninsured) and presently, as a self-employed consultant, he, like nearly 50 million other Americans, lacks health insurance.

Photo Credit: Darrell Sapp, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette