A 21 year-old college student runs the elevators at the Capitol on which the U.S.senators ride. Whenever the Senate is in session, he is on duty. He is presently struggling with $255,000 of medical bills incurred by his
mother before she died in April 2007 from an aggressive form of brain cancer at age 61.
A local hospital and its collection agency have been hounding him in an effort to collect from his mother’s estate. To pay the bills, he must sell the Maryland home where he lived with his mother.
This article highlights the problems of the uninsured, from which members of Congress are usually insulated. The leading Democratic presidential candidates say all Americans should have coverage as good as what Congress has.
This is a sad American story. Many are left outside the health care system. Any physician who practices here knows the crazy-quilt pastiche of insurance plans (federal, state, private, HMO etc.) just doesn't work; yet change seems too daunting.
Read this piece for a reality check. Uninsured Intrudes at the Halls of Power