Guaranteed Healthcare

My name is Subha. I moved to USA from India nine years ago. I have been self employed for 8 years now. My husband works full time, but for a small company with just 4 employees. We cannot afford the full health insurance for our family of four (two boys aged 7 and 4). So we have high deductible insurance. ($10,000 per year) I was diagnosed with stomach cancer in Nov '08 and had surgery in Dec. I am getting chemo now.

I have medical bills of $20,000. Our home, purchased in 2006, into which we sunk our lives' savings, is appraising at about $190,000 below purchase price! I became an American citizen last year. Now it looks like I cannot afford to live here because of the health insurance problem. If I do not die soon of cancer, my family will be bankrupted because of my medical bills.

Nobody can afford chemo at $7,000 bucks a pop every two weeks, unless they have millions. Not to speak of $4,000 scans. I do not really want to live long if it means financial ruin for my family but I do not want to abandon my boys or my husband. I have been trying for six months to refinance my mortgage at a lower rate to save some money for medical bills. We have excellent credit, but still all lenders are skittish as home values are down.

Where is the HOPE program when I need it? I have written to everybody from Senator of WA state to Obama. Guess you have to be "special" for them to take notice. Not just a middle income taxpayer, who would not Dream of living off public funds, who has been hit HARD by fate and bad markets through no fault of her own.