Guaranteed Healthcare

Cancer Kills Sister Because of Lack of Health Insurance

"For months, despite her weight loss, vomiting, and constant pain, not one medical professional suggested further testing - because Frances did not have health insurance," Anne Gentry of Ripley, W.Va., recalls about her sister’s fight for her life. "My brother worked a $10 per hour job out of state, coming home on weekends. No testing was done until about seven months into the ordeal, when someone suggested checking her gall bladder."

"It wasn't until she collapsed one weekend and was taken to the hospital that any significant testing was done. Of course, by then the cancer had spread throughout her entire abdomen. It was not until after this that anyone found a source of funds besides the sliding fee scale at the local clinic."

"Even then, healthcare in America failed her. With my brother having to work out of state, she lived at home – doing all her meds, IV feeding, and documentation by herself, with a home nurse coming once a week. This was a high school graduate with no medical training whatsoever."

"The moral of this story? Don't get sick in rural America."

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Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.