The American Public on Health Care-The Missing Perspective - (Page 8)

Voices from the Town Hall A Miami woman lost her health insurance when she was divorced four years ago. She just could not afford to buy insurance while she was in school, ironically earning a nursing degree. “I haven’t had a mammogram… because I couldn’t do anything about it if I found out I had cancer.” A young mother in San Francisco quit her job when her son was diagnosed with a brain tumor so her family income would be low enough to qualify for Medicaid coverage. She and her husband had insurance coverage but could not afford the thousands of dollars a year in out-of-pocket expenses. “If you have a low enough income, you can be on Medi-Cal and that’s how we got through this.” A physician in Miami described one of his first patients as an intern. “She was uninsured and presented to the hospital with abdominal pain, which had been going on for a year. She came when she couldn’t take it anymore and we diagnosed her with colon cancer, which was advanced, and she died under my care. I remember being very depressed… it happens all the time.” A dean of a nursing school in Miami points out, “Health care is the only thing that you buy and you have no idea how much it costs. You walk into a hospital and no one gives you a menu of prices… we should know that an appendectomy costs X, not $1,000 here, $2,000 there, $3,000 there. I think it should be transparent.” 8

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