Eric in Bedford, Pennsylvania

Eric in Bedford, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

I met with Eric in Jim’s living room (at the home where I stayed that night). Jim had invited several neighbors to stop by for a discussion of healthcare reform and Eric was gracious enough to share his story with me.

First, he does not have health insurance. He looked into it, reviewed the policies from three companies and saw that there was essentially no difference among them. “It was 80/20 coverage and no doctors were covered,” he told me. The premiums started off at $300 a month and went up to $900 a month within a year. “Worse than the cable company!” And so he dropped the coverage.

As it turns out, Eric did have a serious health issue last year—a pituitary adenoma (a form of benign, but still very dangerous, brain tumor). One morning he woke up nearly blind—all he could see was a tiny pin-prick of light (an extreme form of a condition called ‘tunnel vision’). He had himself taken to the emergency room.

To make a long story short, he was treated at UPMC. He told me “Hershey refused to talk because he had no insurance.” Being without insurance, he now, after all was said and done, owed $160,000. He was able to make deals with the doctors but the hospital, he told me, “was never cooperative—a monster to deal with. And there was no negotiation.” He told me about his ongoing struggles with the hospital.

“And the billing was so strange," he added. As someone who checks things out carefully, he told me how an MRI at UPMC cost $7,000 but the same scan, on the same machine, cost $2,000 in the nearby town of Altoona. “And a single Tylenol pill cost $10! It’s a crazy system.”

Kay in Bedford, Pennsylvania

Kay in Bedford, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Kay’s a part-owner of a small business—all of three people. Because of the high cost of health insurance, the deductibles, and ‘all that,’ “they’ve got no discretionary income,” she told me. They’re with Highmark and the premium went up $100 a month within the past few months alone. Her husband has had two heart surgeries (done at the Cleveland Clinic). The cost was $4,000 a day but they ended up paying $700. “That was a relief,” she said. “But we're lucky. We can afford healthcare insurance—barely—but that leaves us with no extra money.” Clearly up-to-date on various healthreform proposals, she added, “It would be nice if I could deduct it as a tax credit.”

“But here’s the real problem,” Kay continued. “If my husband—or I—couldn’t work then we wouldn’t be able to maintain the income to pay for any insurance. How will we be able to pay for health insurance when we actually need it most? That’s what doesn’t make sense.”

I was readying to leave when Kay interrupted. “One more thing. I think much of these premium monies are being wasted.”

“How so?” I asked.

“I went to a Pirates game and they were giving out free bobblehead dolls.” Guess who sponsored all that?”

“Who?”

“Highmark. That’s where health insurance premiums go—to advertising.”

And so my experience came full circle as I recalled the giant Highmark billboards scattered among Pittsburgh’s downtown when I had been there four days earlier.

Write to President Obama about the Walk For Healthcare

Feel free to copy & paste (and edit as you like) the following to send to the White House using the link http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

Dear President Obama,

I believe true healthcare reform is of critical importance to the nation. Healthcare for all is a matter of human rights, human dignity, and economic security.

My friend, Dr. Ogan Gurel, has been walking from Chicago to Washington, DC over the past month in support of healthcare reform. Specifically, he has been gathering stories from real people along his Lincoln Highway route in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He will be in Hagerstown, Maryland tonight (7/22) and plans to arrive in Washington on the afternoon of Sunday (7/26) and staying in DC through Tuesday (7/28). I hope that you might have a chance to meet with him, not only because the Walk is a remarkable statement of support for healthcare reform (I haven’t seen any lobbyists initiating such a formidable accomplishment), but specifically because Dr. Gurel has gathered hundreds of stories, posting them on his blog (http://walk4healthcare.org) and Twittering them (@walk4healthcare) along the way. These stories paint a picture, as he calls it, of a “national catastrophe,” that deserves to be heard much more forcefully than the plaintive pleas of lobbyists intent upon preserving their piece of the healthcare money pot. The voice of the people must be at the forefront of this debate.

In addition to meeting with you, Dr. Gurel is keen to meet with lawmakers in Congress (some Senators have already expressed interest) and any assistance in facilitating such meetings would also be much appreciated. Dr. Gurel can be reached at ogan@walk4healthcare.org.

Thank you very much for your consideration,

XXXXX

or call/fax:

Tel: 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461

Thank you!

Ogan

ogan@walk4healthcare.org

Photo Credit: Darrell Sapp, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Terry in Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Terry in Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Terry’s here in Greensburg visiting from Philadelphia. She shared with me the story of her mother’s untimely death, which resulted, in her estimation, from a nightmarish confluence of administrative barriers and inhumane insurance policies.

The story goes as follows. Her mother underwent a liver biopsy. This was on a Friday. As Terry explained to me, “She was done as an outpatient, but even though the surgeon said it was complicated, with ‘bleeders,’ she was not permitted by her insurance to stay overnight.” She returned home for the weekend. On Sunday, she went to the emergency room with escalating pain but was sent home again being told it was a ‘gallbladder’ problem. The pain still unbearable, she returned to the ER within three hours. “From what we learned,” Terry said, “there was a blood clot pressing on the bile duct.” She progressed rapidly downhill from there ending up three-and-a-half weeks in the ICU (battling sepsis). Six weeks after the biopsy she died.

Terry finished the story. “If only the insurance had been more flexible, had considered true medical necessity, in observing my mother the first night after her procedure, perhaps she would still be with us now.”

Ed at the King's & Queen's Restaurant & Hotel in Stoysville, Pennsylvania

Ed at the King's & Queen's Restaurant & Hotel in Stoysville, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

“I haven’t had health insurance since ‘92," Ed told me, when I asked him if he had any healthcare stories. “That’s when Bethlehem Steel closed down—so, no insurance, for me.”

I nodded. “I can understand. I don’t have insurance either.”

I don’t think Ed really heard me as he continued, “I’m glad I’m healthy because if not, I’d be dead.”

Ed plays quite a bit of soccer (he’s wearing his soccer t-shirt now) and he told me of an injury he had a few years back. He got hit pretty hard at a soccer game at the “Y.” “Got myself a gash on my head and some sort of shoulder injury.” And so he went to the emergency room. When he told them he lacked insurance, Ed told me that the doctor basically said, “Stitch him up and send him home.” Ed had an angry look on his face. “I got 27 stitches but they did nothing about my shoulder.” I suppose I could understand his displeasure as with all that he got a bill for $2,300. “I still haven’t paid it, and I never will be able to,” he said.

Despite these distressing stories, Ed was not really as sour as his tale would make him to be. We talked about quite a few other topics and he wished me well on my journey, closing in now, on Washington, DC.

Karl at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania

Karl at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Originally uploaded by walk4healthcare

Karl, a volunteer Ambassador at the Flight 93 Memorial, told me he doesn’t believe in a government-run system. According to him, the ‘free-market’ is the best though he acknowledged that having insurance linked to employment was a problem. “Empower the individual,” Karl explained to me.

“So how about your own situation,” I asked.

“We're not well-to-do,” he said. “I get my health insurance from the state, a plan called ‘Special Care’ which is in between Medicaid and private insurance.”

“And how’s it going with that?”

“Very well actually,” he answered. “It’s not connected to employment status so I have the freedom to change jobs without changing my health coverage.”

[On a side note, Karl, in his presentation to the thirty some-odd gathered visitors at the memorial explained how about $40 million more was needed to complete the permanent Flight 93 Memorial. I recalled how anti-reform industry groups were spending (as reported by the Wall Street Journal) about $1.4 million a day in their selfish and grasping efforts to thwart (or worse manipulate) healthcare reform. That means that about a month of that spending (the time it took for me to walk from Chicago to DC) would cover the remaining cost of the Memorial—a tribute, as most know, to Americans who gave the last full measure of sacrifice for their fellow citizens.]

Contact your Members of Congress!!!

Hello Everyone!

As you know, Ogan is due to arrive in DC on Sunday the 26th.
This means we only have one week left to spread the word about it, and Contact Congress to ask they see him on our behalf upon arrival.

Now there is a VERY easy way for you to do it all in just a few clicks too!

This article below was published yesterday about the Walk; and it gives an overview of the movement while pointing out the strength is in blending both high-tech devises and “feet on the ground” activism.

“Where the Tech-Rubber Meets the Activism-Road”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Where-the-Tech-Rubber-Meet-by-Heather-Meyer-090717-595.html

At the bottom of each page is a Take Action link that reads:
“Meet with The People on Health Care, by Meeting with Dr. Gurel”

Follow this link and you will see: You can Contact Congress (both houses, add personal message), send the article to your local newspaper, then pass it onto your friends and family, and ask them to do the same! If you prefer to Call Congress, then there is a handy-dandy phone number lookup for you there instead. Calling can be a great way to get an answer back from your members of Congress too; just ask the person taking your call for a return call to get an answer if your rep will meet with Ogan, and then let us know what you were told.

If you would like to see more press on the Walk for Healthcare or want more to pass on to others, it can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=113509038713&topic=8774

The only thing that’s missing from the press archives at this moment is the interview Ogan just had with Dick Kay of Chicago’s Progressive Talk – great stuff, will post when ready!

Lastly, I wanted to thank everybody that has really stepped up to support the Walk. It has been a sight to behold, to see everybody coming together like this for health care reform. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it! Ogan will be posting one incredible story about a supporter today too, so stay tuned…

Please let me know if there is something I can do to help you with this effort too!


Thank you,
Heather Meyer
Event Coordinator
http://www.facebook.com/ProgressiveMews