[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 26 (Thursday, March 10, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   FACES OF HEALTH CARE: ANDY AZEVEDO

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I just want to say that we are really on 
the verge of being able to make some progress on health care for all 
Americans. I think it becomes increasingly important, as the special 
interests pay for their very sophisticated commercials that make people 
believe that changes in the health care system will only harm them, 
that we come to the Senate floor when we can and put a face on this 
health care crisis. That is what I am going to do today, Mr. President, 
in a very personal way.
  I want to talk to you about a young man whose name was George 
Anthony--we called him Andy--Azevedo, who came to Washington and talked 
to many of us about health care reform when he was 19 years old.
  I will never forget. He was a very strapping young man, with a 
potential scholarship to college. That was 4 years ago. He would have 
desperately wanted to be here with us today in Washington, pushing us 
to enact real health care reform, but he cannot because Andy Azevedo 
died in 1991. I think that his story is very instructive for all 
Americans to hear.
  Andy would want us to know how hard he tried not to let down all 
those who cared about him. He would want us to know how his doctors 
never let him down, how his friends and his neighbors were there for 
him, how thousands of strangers from California and from all over the 
country gave him their love and their caring and as much money as they 
could.
  The money was essential because the health care system did let Andy 
down. The insurance industry let him down. To Andy they seemed not to 
care about him or people like him.
  Andy died still fighting for all those who were excluded from health 
care like he was, or who would be excluded. It is now our fight to 
carry on. It is our responsibility. It is our duty to the American 
people to stand up and fight for real health care reform.
  Let me tell you a little more about Andy.
  Andy was raised in Sonoma County, CA, in a very rural area of our 
State. He and his mom and dad, Marilyn and Simon Azevedo, and his two 
brothers and two sisters, spent a lot of time in Two Rock, which was 
their home. Andy loved sports. Football was his main love, and he 
played it every chance he got.
  In fact, when Andy first found out that he had cancer, he thought he 
had a football injury. He had a sore on his finger, not much of a sore, 
but it would not heal. So his mom had him get it checked out. After 
all, here is a tough kid who bangs around all the time on the football 
field. What is a sore finger? As Andy said: ``I just came from football 
practice. How can I have cancer?''
  But the diagnosis was clear-cell sarcoma. He had a sarcoma, clear-
cell sarcoma, a rare disease that usually strikes people much older 
than Andy.
  Illness like this can strike any of us, any American, any of our 
relatives, and any of our friends. A potentially fatal disease struck 
Andy at the age of 18, at the prime of his teenage years, on the way up 
a promising football career. A sore in his finger and too short a time 
later Andy died.
  But do you know why Andy came to see me and to 60 other offices on 
Capitol Hill? I was over in the House of Representatives then. Andy 
wanted us to know that even if he had survived his fight with cancer, 
he would never get health insurance again. Andy's insurance came 
through his parents' policy. He told us that he fully expected to 
survive his cancer. He said: ``When I turn 21, I am going to have to 
get my own insurance.'' Andy's insurance company told him that he would 
be uninsurable because he was too great a risk.
  Andy was a fighter. He was a fighter and he fully intended to reach 
that 21st birthday and beyond. But all the time he worried about losing 
his insurance. So Andy came here to fight for the tens of thousands of 
people like him, people who have fought the fight of their lives.
  Mr. President, we all have friends and relatives who have fought 
cancer and who have won the battle, and then after they survive the 
fight of their life they can never get health insurance again because 
of something the insurance company called a preexisting condition.
  I call it a disgrace, a shame, on our country. I call it a failure of 
our system to keep people secure, a failure to keep faith with those 
who have sent us here to do the right thing.
  Can you imagine what it was like for Andy fighting every day just to 
be alive, and at the very time he needed all the positive thoughts he 
could hold on to--and anyone who has fought cancer knows that is part 
of the fight, a positive attitude, a positive feeling. But all the time 
he had to face the fact that even if he survived it he could never get 
his own insurance and he and his family would be in financial risk 
forever.
  Mr. President, no one in America should ever have to face those 
feelings, to know that they are expendable for some company's bottom 
line. Every man, woman, and child deserves to know that if they will 
fight to survive, we will fight to make sure they are never uninsured.
  Andy might be alive today if he had received better treatment from 
his insurance company.
  He came here to tell us what life was like when he was denied a 
needed operation by his insurance company, and then he had to face the 
fact that even if he was able to raise money for this operation, and 
even if he survived that operation, he would lose his insurance.
  Andy's family found out what it was like--extra jobs for extra money 
just to pay for uncovered medical costs. Andy's friends, both old and 
new, found out through bake sales, weekend runs, Sunday brunches, 
anything they could think of that earned a little money toward Andy's 
enormous health care bills. I know how much people cared, because I 
went to one of those breakfasts where we all prayed and gave what we 
could.
  Andy went through hell. There is no other way to describe it. His 
finger was amputated. They found 3 dozen tumors in his lungs, a tumor 
in his heart, and then a tumor in his brain.
  In his fight, Andy had surgery on both lungs, his heart, and his 
brain. The doctors said: ``You will never walk, you will never feel; 
you will never play football again.'' They told Andy he would never 
survive.
  But Andy survived for a period long enough to become a spokesperson 
for parents of kids with cancer. He was with us for less than 2 years, 
2 years where the doctors said he would never survive. But he shared 
his strength with many in those 2 years.
  His only hope after so many surgeries, a bone marrow operation, was 
denied by his insurance company. Andy went to organizations for 
financial help. His friends went to their savings. People from all over 
the country helped raise $60,000 just to get Andy admitted to the 
hospital for treatment. The fight took too long, and Andy died before 
he could get the operation.
  But do you know the irony, Mr. President? The irony of our current 
system is that even if that transplant had been successful and Andy had 
survived, he would have lost his insurance coverage when we turned 21 
because his cancer made him uninsurable.
  As Andy wrote to me,

       If I'm one of the lucky ones, I'll still need to be 
     followed closely. I will need to be checked out every few 
     months for the remainder of my life, but I can't do that 
     unless I am able to buy the needed health insurance.

  Andy did not want charity from anyone, from any company. He just 
wanted to be allowed to buy insurance.
  He wrote, and I quote further:

       The lawmakers of our country were elected with a trust of 
     the people to do what is right for them. And to let children 
     who have fought so hard to stay alive * * * become victims of 
     big business after fighting for their lives seems very wrong.

  Those are the jewels, the words of a 19-year old.
  Andy lettered in three sports at Tomales High School. He was the 
student representative to the school board. He never asked much for 
himself. He wanted to do for himself. But he came here to Washington to 
ask for others. That is what the President's health care plan does. It 
asks for others, for all those who cannot ask for themselves, or who do 
not even know the trouble that may be awaiting them with the current 
health care system.
  Andy and his mom wanted others to know how sometimes our health 
system caused them even more pain than Andy's cancer. They started a 
book together about health care. Marilyn, Andy's mom, promised to send 
the book for all of us when it is finished, and I am going to send it 
to each and every one of my colleagues. Marilyn, his mom, said:

       If you have a rare disease like Andy's, you're blazing a 
     trail because the treatment that you will get will help 
     others. Helping Andy would have helped others.

  And she said further:

       Insurance has to be there for all of us when we need it. 
     Isn't that what it's for?

  We are going to debate this issue. There are those who are fighting 
for the status quo.
  And I am going to again quote Marilyn Azevedo, a mother who lost a 
son, who put it all in two sentences:

       Insurance has to be there for all of us when we need it. 
     Isn't that what it's for?

  I hope that I can tell her, and I will fight to tell her, that we are 
going to make certain that insurance will be there for everyone, 
regardless of preexisting conditions.
  And here is another terrible irony. Marilyn, Andy's mom, told us that 
the company she works for changed insurance carriers and that her new 
carrier rejected her--high blood pressure, they told here.
  During one of his remissions Andy, was talking about his career. He 
said, ``I'm interested in forestry because I like the outdoors. But, 
who knows, after all this, I could get into politics.''
  Andy never made it. He never made it here. But we have, and let us 
listen to his plea.
  An illness may have beaten Andy, but nothing except our lack of 
courage on health care reform can beat the spirit that he shared with 
so many of us.
  Andy's courage in the fight against cancer is legendary. Now let us 
find the courage to stand up to the special interests and to those who 
fight for the status quo, and to Harry and Louise on television, a 
couple of actors who want to turn Americans against health care reform. 
Andy has given me the courage, and I hope Andy will give each and every 
one of my colleagues the courage.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from California yields 
the floor.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER addressed the Chair.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from West Virginia [Mr. 
Rockefeller] is recognized.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I thank the Chair.
  Before the good Senator from California, [Mrs. Boxer] leaves, I think 
we are all very conscious of Andy and I hope we get around finally to 
doing something about Andy.
  What strikes me about this place is our ability to put politics above 
people, to put party above people, and to put all of those above Andy. 
Andy would not have been happy about that.
  I think that is one of the reasons that you were elected and that is 
one of the reasons that the Senator from California is such a strong 
advocate. And if we can just focus the American people's attention on 
Andy, on health care, we will get this done, because we know they want 
us to do it, just as Andy's family wants us to do it.
  So I really thank the Senator.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, if I might ask the Senator to yield to me 
for just a moment to comment on his leadership on this.
  This has been a very long and difficult struggle. The Senator from 
West Virginia has stayed focused on this issue to the point where I 
think sometimes it pays a price.
  I want to say to him that the more we can bring these real stories to 
the floor of this U.S. Senate and talk about real people and talk about 
our responsibilities, I think the quicker we will succeed.
  With the Senator's leadership--I will be by his side--we will pass 
real health care reform, and we will all be proud, and we will do it in 
Andy's memory and for all those children and adults who had to go 
through really the kind of hell that he went through; again, at one 
point saying that this fear of losing insurance was more painful at 
times than the cancer. It is an extraordinary comment, is it not?
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I thank the Senator from California.

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