“I don’t mind working, I’ve worked for 50 years and I’ll work for many more,” Dave Penkava told an audience at the Greensboro regional health forum, one of five forums commissioned by the White House to hear from people across the country with a stake in reforming our health care system. He described how he’s been forced to work past retirement and Medicare eligibility age because his wife is a few years younger and has a chronic condition with severe pain.

You may remember Dave from our Cover America Tour, where we traveled the country chronicling the problems Americans are experiencing with our broken health care system. Now, some of those same people are getting involved in the fight for health care reform by contacting their members of Congress, talking to their friends and family, and attending these regional forums.

Dave was one of a handful of people invited by North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue to tell his story of how older Americans short of Medicare eligibility age are left out in the cold when it comes to health insurance. Dave and his wife were offered an individual policy at the astonishing rate of $3,200 per month. The state recently created a high-risk insurance pool, but as Dave told the crowd, it’s only for the “well-to-do,’’ with high premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.

At the first forum in Dearborne, Mich., another activist from our Cover America Tour roused the audience when she stood up in defense of a woman fighting cancer who was denied coverage for treatment by her insurance company. But Sister Mary Ellen is used to that sort of thing. We interviewed her at the Cabrini Clinic in Detroit this summer where she’s executive director of the nation’s oldest free clinic, providing care to many of the community’s uninsured. She boldly asked, “Who in this room is going to help this woman?” calling on hospital executives by name. “People are dying,” she told the crowd, which responded with enthusiastic applause. “We’ve heard it said that this is a moral imperative, you just heard why it’s a moral imperative.”

Thousands of you have sent your stories to us about problems with the health care system, and millions more either have no insurance at all or fall in to that painful category of being underinsured. In the plain-spoken words of Gov. Perdue, “You’ve gotta have health care for people who can’t afford it.”

The administration has taken a good first step with these forums--going out to listen to what people like you think needs to be fixed. They've also created a special website to continue that dialog on line. The more people who bring real experiences directly to administration officials charged with creating solutions, the better those solutions will be. You've seen what Dave and Sister Mary Ellen had to say. Take a moment and communicate directly with the administration yourself! Send me, grassroots organizer Blake Hutson, an e-mail and I’ll let you know more about how you can help get the changes we need.

comments (7)

Stop, Stop, Stop sticking it to the people that work the hardest and forward most of their income to the Government in the form of taxes.
1. We get short changed in healthcare benefits and socked with higher costs. Many can't afford any healthcare at all.
2. The U.S. Government is using our tax dollars to bail out financial crooks and they are laughing in our faces and increasing the credit card fees of the people that can afford it the least.
3. People that aren't even citizens of the United States are getting "free" healthcare, and subsidized housing, while some of our citizens who served this country are sleeping under bridges in card board boxes and can't afford medications and decent housing.
WHAT ARE THE CITIZENS DOING WRONG?
Is being honest and hard working WRONG?
It is great to help everyone, but why can't we put our own citizens on the "to help" list??????
Let's make everyone that is getting something free from the Government, do some sort of work to help earn it (unless they are physically unable).

Cities are cutting expenses by laying off police and fire fighters, teachers, etc. Let's put some of these non-contributing people that are getting completely free handouts to "donating-their-time" to help with classroom activities, recess activities, lunchroom cleanup, etc. Everyone needs to work for their "lunch"!

Thanks for listening
Madeline

Why is it that our elected officials are covered by the best insurance plans,often after retirement and pay noting into the system? If they had to make personal health decisions, perhaps they would be more apt to work for a solution. If their plan is good enough for them, it's good enough for the people who elected them.

We need a system that mandates that everybody pays for health insurance. We can not expect business, big or small, to carry the burden. Plans get more expensive every year, and benefits shrik. As a result, products and servies increase in cost and health care coverage decreases.

Unless one is covered by a company or union plan, health insurance is almost unattainable. Insurance companies are in business to make a profit. They do that by insuring only healthy people and excluding pre-existing conditions. On the other hand, the people expect the best medical care and demand that someone else pay for it.

The solution is to revise the tax code. We do not have to pay more taxes. We just need to pay our fair share. What we need to do is alleviate the antiquated perks. Contrary to the opinion of the real estate lobby, home construction will not stop if the interest deduction is eliminated. If one can't afford to buy as a result of it, rent.

The deductions for children must go. Parenting may be the most important job, but with it comes responsibilities. Both are huge, individual endevors, but don't expect others to pay for them.

By revising the tax code, including but not limited to hundred of other perks, we can level the playing field, pay our fair share, and find the funds to solve the insurance coverage issue.

My wife is three years younger than I am, and in order to obtain health insurance for her, instead of being able to retire, I must work an additional three years to afford it.

We need reasonable rates for health insurance for the general public and for situations similar to the one we are in.

I've lost faith in CR recommendations! A recommended front loading washer cleaned well, but failed catastophically after 7 yrs. A new [09]
highly recommended GE top loader cleans poorly, has poor controls, & its customer service web site doesnt respond to complaints.
And CR web site is feedback unfriendly!

I agree I don't have children and don't want to pay to educate and provide health care. that's the parents job they had fun making them let pay I want to pay my fair taxes and have acces to afforable heath care. I'm 61 semi-retired and paying my health insurance on my own. I'm still working part-time and am paying my health premiums w/little help from my former employer. lets get health insurance reform passed this year.

IN 1992 CITY WORKERS IN PHILADELPHIA COULD RETIRE AT AGE 55. BUT,I WORKED UNTIL I WAS 62 YRS OLD IN ORDER HAVE THE HEALTH PLAN; MAKE AN EASIER TRANSITION INTO COLLECTING SS; MAKE A COMBINED INCOME [SS+ PENSION] THAT WAS APX. EQUAL TO MY THEN CURRENT YEARLY INCOME. $20,500-$21,000.

AS A SINGLE PERSON WITH ONLY 1 MARRIED SON LIVING OUT OF THE USA I NEEDED TO RELY ON SELF.

THE USA CAN DO BETTER BY IT'S CITIZENS.
SINCERELY. , BMB

Last year i moved from VA to Europe. My elders here honestly believe that healthy, fed, and sheltered children is fair and right.
The people pay their taxes, the elderly are cared for, the young and vulnerable are healthy, i am crushed over and over as a mother that society can become less primitive. I support the Physicians for a National Healthcare Program in the US and i hope you will also. These are real heros.

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