Guaranteed Healthcare

I have written the following letter to my official congressmen/women, and would like to forward this same information and my story on to you. Thank you, Jennifer Dunn August 5, 2007

Dear Senator Kit Bond, Senator Claire McCaskill, Representative William Lacy (Bill) Clay, Jr., Representative Todd Akin, Representative Russ Carnahan, Representative Ike Skelton, Representative Emanuel Cleaver II, Representative Samuel B. Graves, Representative Roy Blunt, Representative Jo Ann Emerson, Representative Kenny C. Hulshof:

I want to write to you all, being my official Congressmen and Congresswomen, from the State of Missouri. I live in St. Louis, MO. I want to share with you a very recent story about my Mother, who is 57 years of age. My Mom for several months now (about 9 months) has had a lump on her right side in her abdomen. She does not have medical insurance, and was afraid to go to the Doctor for fear that it might be cancer. Recently, about 2 weeks ago, she started having horrible pain, excruciating pain, and high fever and chills, and did not eat for 3 days or smoke, and her being a smoker, that is very major for her not to smoke for 3 days.

I didn't know she was sick until 2 weeks ago on a Saturday (July 21, 2007), when I called my Mom. I was immediately worried and went down to Farmington, MO where she lives, to see her. I tried to take her to the Emergency Room, but she refused to go, saying she couldn't afford it, and she was going to try and tough it out until Monday, and go to a regular Doctor. So I took her home with me, back to St. Louis, MO on Sunday night. She lay in bed awake all night moaning and groaning of horrible pains. Again, I begged my Mom to let me take her to the ER, but she wouldn't go since she did not have health or medical insurance, she was afraid she would not be able to afford it. So she did not seek the necessary medical treatment because of this factor.

Anyway, Monday came around, and I called my regular Dr. Christopher Maret, to schedule an appointment for my Mom. The Dr. refused to see her, since she did not have insurance! I thought that was horrible, especially, since he's seen her before! He said it had been longer than 3 years since he last saw her, and he was not accepting new patients that did not have insurance! I was mortified by what I'd heard! I was outraged! It took me half of the day to call BJC's (Barnes-Jewish Network) Dr. referral line, to find a Dr. that would see my Mom, since she had no insurance. I didn't know our medical community was this way, or this corrupt. Even though we were willing to pay cash up front for the Dr's visit, they still would not see her!

There is seriously something wrong with our Medical system here folks! We finally, finally got a hold of a Dr. that would see her, Dr. William Budd, who is my husband's Mother's Dr. We scheduled her an appointment for that same day on Monday at 3pm, and we got there early at 2:30pm to fill out paperwork. My Mom was still in much pain mind you, and she was not even seen until 5pm that day! We barely got in, in time to have some blood work and a urinalysis drawn at the lab, but thankfully we did. The Dr. said she had a horrible bladder and kidney infection and prescribed Cipro, a strong antibiotic for her take, and said he would call with the results of the lab work on Wednesday, since they were closed on Tuesdays. Ugh....! The waiting game.

The Dr. felt of my Mom's lump, and he said it was more like a mass. It was golf ball size. He asked her how long she has had this lump, and she said since around November of last year (2006). He was very concerned. We asked him what he thought it was, and he skirted around the answer, then said, he thinks it is too high to be an ovary, too low to be a kidney stone, and doesn't seem to be appendicitis. We even thought, possibly a tapeworm, but he said no, and it was too hard to be a hernia. So that leaves a big possibility of a tumor. He thinks it is possibly lymphoma, which is a form of cancer that can create tumors in your intestines. BUT, we will need to do lots more testing to determine what it is, and how to treat it.

Again, mind you, my Mom does not have insurance. She is going to pay out of her own pocket for an MRI/CT Scan, which will give the Dr. a better look at this mass, but after that, we're not sure. My Mom is retired, and has been for 3 years. See, she worked for the prison, in Farmington, MO for over 20 years, and had she worked 3 more years there, she could've taken an early retirement with full benefits, they call it (80-ing out), if you work for the state of MO. But she just couldn't take it any more, and she switched jobs and began working as a music school teacher at Desloge Elementary, in Desloge, MO.

After having pneumonia 3 times and having chronic illnesses and asthma, she decided to take time off from working, and she was getting her retirment money from the previous prison job. About that time also, my sister had left her fiance and needed a lot of help with that and with my 4 year old nephew at the time, so my Mom decided to go ahead and quit her teaching job, and recoop her health, and help my sister. It's been 3 years, and she always had the thought that she was going to go back to work, because she needed benefits.

Now, here she is, and she is possibly very ill, w/out insurance. We called Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and the St. Francois County Health Department. They told her that she was not old enough to receive Medicaid or Medicare, as you have to be 65, or disabled. She is not disabled and is only 57. Social Security and the Health Dept. told her that she made too much money, to get aid from them. Please, she only makes around $19,000 per year on her retirement! So I just can't believe this all. She seems to fall between the cracks in the system unfortunately.

I don't know what else we can do to help her, and I am writing to express my deep concern that our Country does not help our own people. What ever happened to Americans helping each other in our Country? I have to tell you that I saw Michael Moore's new film today, "SiCKO", and I was severely moved all the more by what I saw in the film. It's unfair, and purely sinful that we have allowed money to take precedence over people's lives, and in helping our own people get medical coverage. It seems that as was pointed out in the movie, France, England, Canada and Cuba, have free health coverage in their countries, and that is only to name a few.

The people in the United States should not be neglected or denied medical help, because they do not have insurance! What's worse, is the fact that in the movie, there were several examples of medical neglect from those folks that did have HMO plans and insurance! How sad, that we are letting our politicians and doctors to be paid off by the pharmaceutical and medical insurance companies, so that they can continue to run the medical and health industry in this country. Has this become the American way? I really think that we all should take a serious look at the healthcare industry in this country, and we cannot allow it to continue this way.

I feel strongly that we should care for our own people and help them out as the other countries do. I don't know what will happen to my Mom, but I pray to our Heavenly Father, that he will somehow bring her through this. Please let me know of anything else that we can do to help her, since she needs to have further testing done and treatment, and has no insurance coverage. Thank you for your time.