I am posting people's health (s)care stories because I believe this is our most pressing social issue at this time. Please feel free to comment or post your own story on the ULCMA forum.

My husband and I are both in our 20's, and in June of 2008 he was diagnosed with a primary immune deficiency called Common Variable Immune Deficiency, or Hypogammaglobulinemia. Thankfully there is a treatment for this deficiency, but that treatment costs around $1500/week. It is an infusion of antibodies called IVIG which he can administer at home, but he will be doing it the rest of his life, or until another method comes about to treat his immune deficiency. This was overwhelming news for us as we started our life together, and just thinking about the health/physical side of it is enough. But when you add on all the medical costs; the infusion, all the doctor appointments for the symptoms of his immune problem, as well as surgeries, and the cost of a health insurance that will cover him, it seems like an impossible thing to face. Luckily, we live in Oklahoma which is one of about 30 states that provides a high risk pool. We were able to get him onto this insurance, but the premiums are about $350/month, along with a $500 deductible, and $2000 out of pocket amount each year. Roughly, we will still pay $6700 each year just to have health insurance that will pay the medical bills. Our total yearly income is somewhere around $40,000 which means his healthcare alone costs us nearly 17% of our income. I just think this is outrageous. We make ends meet, and we were lucky enough to both get college educations and decent jobs that we enjoy. But my heart goes out to people who were not born into the same priveleges as we both were, who have had an uphill climb their whole life in order to make ends meet and find a way to take care of their families. It isn't right that drug companies and insurances are making an ungodly amount of money off of people who are just trying to live a life that is healthier and productive. I believe that the US could have a MUCH better healthcare system, that would take care of MANY more people if the big money makers of our current healthcare system would let go of their greed. Or if our government would simply stand up and say that they will find a better way to make America healthy no matter whose pocket books it may hurt. I do believe our country's healthcare is the most expensive for the amount of care we receive. So many other countries have found a way to provide great healthcare for so much less than what Americans pay, so there HAS to be a way to improve our system. PLEASE reform this current broken system, and do so with clear consciences and good hearts, looking out for the well being of the citizens you represent.

http://stories.barackobama.com/healthcare/stories/...

Phyllis's health care story

I am a practicing physician assistant. Almost every day an insurance company denies something that I have tried to do for one of my patients, either prescribe a medicine or order a procedure. I have now started to prepare patients for the possibility that their health care will be "rationed" by somebody at their insurance company and follow it with this: "the people opposed to a new system of health care in this country want you to believe it will end up 'rationing'health care. Health care is and has been rationed for a very long time. I think it's about time the playing field was leveled and we all understood what the rules are." I'm soing my part to educate the health care consumer, are you? Call your members of Congress and demand that this happens!

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This is the time when the excrement starts hitting the fan. The lobbyists are in overdrive, rounding up members of Congress just like the cowboys of the Old West would bring in the herd.

Read the rest of Dean's blog here.

We've heard all the reasons, listed ad infinitum on Fox News and, particularly, at length on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Health care reform will cost too much. It will bankrupt the country. It will force government bureaucrats between patients and doctors -- as though this was somehow worse than our current system, in which insurance-company bureaucrats insert themselves between patients and doctors and, with a profit motive in mind, lose themselves in the sort of banal evil that has created one horror story after another in our health care system.

Read the rest of Dan's post here.


You can find out more about the Universal Life Church Minister's Association at http://ulcma.webs.com