Before the Reform

Below are a couple of personal stories of patients who have experienced sorrows because of the Health Care system before the Reform.

Erin Walker is a 25-year old college student who has no health insurance. Currently, she has a hole in her spine and is unable to do many things, including her favorite things to do which are run and ride horses. There is a surgery that could fix the whole in her spine, but she cannot afford the surgery’s astronomical price. She cannot even afford the antibiotics that would lessen the pain that she goes through every day.  Since it is considered a preexisting condition, Erin’s health care does not cover her medical situation. Erin states, “Sometimes I wonder how much business we have helping other countries when we can’t even help our own.”

A couple of years ago, Brian Salmon was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Luckily, he had medical insurance, but it took him multiple years to pay the thousands of dollars off from the medical bills. Brian’s cancer went into remission, but he still had to go to the hospital for the next three years for follow-up visits. Three years after he went into remission, Brian’s insurance company informed him that they no longer considered his hospital a provider for their plans and if he wanted to be covered he must switch hospitals. Brian was heartbroken. He explains, “I had developed a relationship with the doctors, nurses, and staff at the hospital. They had been there during some of the toughest times of my life.” Also, he believes that the Health Care system is very unfair because it is biased towards the wealthy.

“I’m frustrated by the healthcare system,” says Evonne Hilton from Seattle, Washington. She was in a fairly good health care system and had a manageable plan, when she fell and very seriously damaged her head.  The doctors that treated her after the fall did not perform a diagnostic scan on her head; instead she was seen by a doctor and discharged from the emergency room with no other treatment. For several years, she found herself on the streets because she could not keep her job due to severe memory loss and an inability to function properly.  Since the recent Health Care Reform, Evonne lives on social security disability provided to her by Medicaid, in which she is able to pick her doctor and hospital.

Works Cited

Saib, Daina. "Health Care Stories from Patients, Doctors, and Activists by Daina Saib." YES! Magazine — Powerful Ideas, Practical Actions — YES! Magazine. Positive Futures Network, 6 Aug. 2006. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.