America’s Health Care: Take Two Shots of Pepto Bismol and Hope You Don’t Die

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/02/04/americas-health-care-take-two-shots-of-pepto-bismol-and-hope-you-dont-die/

by Mike Hall, Feb 4, 2008

In Georgia, Linda is one of the nearly 15,000 people who have taken the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey. She writes that her husband’s employer provided health insurance for him but the family could not afford coverage for her and her daughter. Now Linda’s husband has lost his job.



My husband now has no health insurance, and he has diabetes. I have several chronic conditions which, if treated, would enable me to take a full-time job. But without treatment, I am unable to work full-time, and unable to do any kind of job that requires standing, bending, or lifting. My teenage daughter gets frequent severe headaches, and we can’t afford to have her diagnosed to find out what is causing the headaches.

Linda’s story is one of the more than 4,000 personal stories from working families about their experience with the nation’s troubled health care system.

We launched the survey Jan. 15 and will give the results to presidential, congressional, and state and local office-seekers to ensure that candidates at every level understand what working families are experiencing. (Check out a comparison of 2008 presidential candidates’ health care proposals here.)

The survey offers a unique opportunity for working families to make our voice heard on the cost of health insurance, quality of health care, access to prescription drugs and the gamut of health care problems we all face—and impress upon candidates for the White House, Congress and all public offices, just how important health care is as a voting issue in 2008.

Along with specific questions on affordability and quality, experiences with insurance companies, hospitals and doctors and suggested remedies, the survey also gives you the chance to tell your own story. (Click here to fill out the survey and tell your health care story. You can vote here on the stories you think make the most impact.)

FULL story at link.