Message to Congress, please stop letting my friends die

by
Chaplain Kathie

Two years ago a friend of mine named Jen of Stuart FL was not feeling well. She went to the emergency room and called me from home. It was a shock to hear the doctors told her they suspected cancer but even more shocking she walked out of the hospital planning on not going back. She didn't have health insurance. Her husband was a contractor and they didn't have much money. They were just working class people trying to do the best they could. She was afraid to die but more afraid of what the financial cost would do to her husband.

Jen, ended up getting the care she needed and ended up dying in a hospice. She left her husband with the heartache of losing her and the mountain of bills to pay for. See, Jen and her husband were separated for a while. They got back together a few months before she found out about having cancer. They thought they just had a miracle happen when her husband was right by her side every step of the way. The problem was, when it came to healthcare, they were left standing alone.

Then we have another friend of mine, Capt. Agnes "Irish" Bresnahan. She fought a long battle with the VA because she had Agent Orange illnesses and PTSD. In March she had a hearing in Washington on her claim. She died there because the VA changed one of her medications to a generic and she ended up with internal bleeding. They gave her a transfusion but her heart just couldn't take it. See, Irish, well she was a tiny dynamo. She just didn't take care of her own claim with her own fight, but fought for all veterans to make sure they were getting the care they needed. Throughout most of it, she had to pay for a lot of things the VA would have if her claim had been approved to the level it should have been. Maybe she would have still been here if she could have had the treatment she needed instead of suffering with Agent Orange killing her and PTSD crushing her.

I have this blog and another one. Between the two of them there are over 17,000 posts. Not bad considering these blogs have only been up since 2005. Most of the posts are about our veterans needing help but not getting it. There are posts on homeless veterans too. Among them are stories about how people end up suffering, end up homeless, end up with a pile of bills because they didn't have health insurance that worked.

Now, I see the commercials about how terrible healthcare is in Canada, but I had a friend up there too and she had cancer. She received all the test and all the treatment she needed and couldn't understand why it was that in this country, not only did veterans have to fight to be taken care of, so did everyone else. Up there, things are not perfect and they have veterans needing more help than they are getting but at least they can get care.

So how is it that things in this country are not working right for people trying to make ends meet? How is it that there are now more billionaires but people like me can't get buy? I have health insurance but basically it's making us suffer to pay for it. My husband gets great care from the VA and I come under CHAMPA but most doctors will end up billing me the difference so we carry a private insurance as well. How is this far? I've heard some of you act as if healthcare is a luxury instead of a necessity for years. It's time to get it right and take care of us because when we lose our jobs, we lose healthcare. We're not looking for free ride but it would be nice to finally be able to arrive at a point where we don't have to be afraid to stay alive because it will cost too much money.

I've listened to all the debates and frankly I think some of you should be ashamed of yourselves. The ones complaining the most seen to find no problem allocating all the money they want when they can get something in return from rich people. The people needing help with healthcare are not rich so I guess we don't matter very much to you but we do matter to the people who care if we live of die young.

Is it really too much to ask that you stop letting people die because you don't want to find the money to keep them alive? You seemed to manage so well when Iraq and Afghanistan were being pumped with hundreds of billions of dollars never being added into the budget. Yes, those speeches of your's are all on tape as well. We heard them on CSPAN. Now they are in the budget and now you notice the deficit. The problem is while you were ignoring us, we were paying close attention to all of you and we noticed that we really don't matter to you. All we can give you is our tax dollars and votes. When it comes to our lives, you just don't think.

Do you have a clue what most families could do to the economy if we had the extra $1,000 a month of more if we didn't have to pay that kind of money on healthcare? Do you know what businesses could do if they had healthy employees instead of terrified ones too afraid to go to the doctor? Every member of congress needs to finally stop and think for a change because the American people are dying for your attention!

Pass a healthcare bill that will give us a chance to live instead of just dream.