Terry in Middletown, Maryland

Terry in Middletown, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

I met Terry at the Oriole Club, a local bar where I stopped in during a ferocious thunderstorm to take a water break. Terry believes in preventative medicine, eating right, exercising—being positive. She doesn’t have insurance and with two kids, she’s busy providing them with a home and feeding them right.

Last year she got very sick but nobody would take her. Because she has no primary care doctor, it costs $250 just to “get in the door.” The others seated along the bar gave knowing looks. She told me she “prayed a lot,” especially when her temperature hit 104. “But I survived,” she said with a smile. “But, if you don’t have insurance,” she told me, “you’re treated different.”

Sonny northwest of Frederick, Maryland

Sonny northwest of Frederick, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Sonny told me the story of a girl in town. Many of the others seated at the bar recognized her plight. “She’s worked for ten years, without insurance,” Sonny told me. And she got sick with a gallbladder problem and, “probably because she couldn’t work on account of her illness,” she was laid-off. She needs a gall bladder removal but the doctor keeps putting her off. “Nobody wants to treat her,” he added. “And she went to see the specialist but he wanted $300 up-front.” Karen, sitting alongside, squirmed in disapproval. “Everyone's giving her the run-around … And there seems to be no way out of her situation.”

Tiffany in Hagerstown, Maryland

Tiffany in Hagerstown, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Tiffany doesn’t have a job, nor does she have health insurance. As a single mom, her daughter gets assistance through the state. For herself, she did have to go to the emergency room one time last year but as she didn’t fill out the form for medical assistance in time (there was a three-month time limit ), she ended up owing $4,000. Now she’s being taken to court by the hospital, Washington County. “I get phone calls every day from the bill collectors,” she tells me. “And I’m scared to go back to the doctor for anything including my ‘frozen shoulder’.

With some trepidation, she told me she knew somebody who was threatened with jail for not responding to court summons for a medical bill. “It's not a good situation to be in,” she told me.

Despite her unhappy troubles, Tiffany insisted on smiling when I took her picture.

Chris in Frederick, Maryland

Chris in Frederick, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Chris works at the Days Inn in Frederick. He’s an insulin-dependent diabetic (that’s his supplies he’s proudly showing me). He has insurance but “it sucks, only covers so much,” he told me. “They don’t cover even the supplies I have here. And if you go to the hospital for low blood sugar, or see a specialist, it costs several hundred dollars.”

He was previously under his parent’s coverage but now his own insurance, which “bad as it is,” he added, has been further downgraded because of the economy. “"But,” he said, “I don't have much choice unless I get another job, and that’s not at all easy these days.”

Frank in Frederick, Maryland

Frank in Frederick, Maryland
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Frank’s story centers around his fiancé. She’s a breast cancer survivor. The chemotherapy, according to Frank, “‘cured’ the cancer but devastated her body.” She continues to have health problems,” he told me. These include diabetes and psoriatic arthritis for which she is treated with methotrexate and Enbril injections. She had been getting her medications through PAC (Physicians Assistance Care of Maryland) but, as Frank explained to me, “Only the diabetes medicines qualified and those she got through this program were less effective than what she was previously taking.” Now that she is working, she is no longer eligible for the program (which requires an income of less than $1,400 a month). Her new job offers health insurance but, “the premiums are so high that if she gets the policy, there’d be no money for anything else.” Getting health insurance, would “make it impossible for her to live,” Frank told me. “And, even with the policy, the medications would be too expensive.”

“Basically,” Frank summarized for me, “without healthcare, she has pain and suffering, can't get out of bed and so could lose the job.”

“That's terrible,” I said.

“Oh, it could be worse I guess,” he replied, shaking his head.

Stories from Pennsylvania

Walk for Healthcare: Stories from Pennsylvania

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In DC: "Last Steps of The Walk, Next Steps to Real Reform"

On Sunday, July 26th, I will arrive in Washington DC after nearly a month and 700 miles on foot from Chicago. Here's the route for the last steps in Washington, DC, starting in Bethesda, MD, heading down Wisconsin Avenue, towards the Healthcare rally in Meridian Hill Park (Malcolm X Park). Join the rally at the Park (1pm - 4pm)! Then at the conclusion of the rally we will walk to the Lincoln Memorial passing by the White House. This last segment is about 2 miles.

9AM Start at Bethesda Doubletree (8120 Wisconsin Ave)

10AM Chevy Chase Country Club (along Wisconsin Ave)

11AM Fort Reno Park (along Wisconsin Ave)

12PM Washington National Cathedral

1PM Along National Zoological Park (along Connecticut Avenue)

2PM Meridian Hill Park (Malcolm X Park) for Rally

4PM Leave Rally and begin Walk to White House (via 16th St)

5PM Along the White House (17th Street)

6PM Lincoln Memorial

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