Carol,

I agree with you, there are millions without insurance and it is WRONG and it IS a civil right, imo, and Dennis is an incredible person whom I am damn glad is there for all of us. I sent him a thank you this morning after I received an email from FireDogLake asking me to support them in their call for him to return monies they raised for him and also to return monies to people who had donated to him because he changed his mind and is going to vote for the bill. I cancelled my subscription to their email alerts and wrote the thank you. He has earned every penny and more, imo.

You are not the only who hasn't had insurance at sometime in our lives. I had no insurance whatsoever four years ago last Dec. when I went into congestive heart failure. They treated me at the ER and admitted me...kept me for several days. Yes, it was expensive and I had follow-ups plus new docs (specialists)to pay, but we worked out a small payment plan which we will probably be paying on the rest of our lives, but they did save my life.

Before that, I cancelled my health insurance in WY, through Roger's employer, when the premium for both of us went up to more than we paid in rent. I did small payments, sliding fee, and/or cash as I went with the docs etc. up there.


One more note: we also make too much for any assistance, but the hospitals have applications one can fill out which they will use to determine if they can reduce the rates you pay. I don't like it, it should all be free as noted above, but it does help. You have to jump through hoops with financial data, but it reduced my visits to the coumadin clinic from about $70 to $40 and my co-pay to the docs affiliated with the hospital went from $25 to $16.50. Every little bit helps.

Finally, DougeR, you said re' the Republicans:

...they just want it to be done right at a cost that is not going to bankrupt the country.

Too bad they didn't watch the costs of the unnecessary WARS.