[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 158 (Wednesday, October 28, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H12031-H12034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE TRUE COST OF NOT HAVING HEALTH INSURANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Polis). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Grayson) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I reserved some time tonight for myself, 
but what I am going to do is yield it to America. I am going to yield 
it to you. I am going to yield it to the people who sent us here.
  As Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, ``The world will 
little note nor long remember what we say here.'' Sometimes I feel the 
same way. So I think it is time to give somebody else a chance.
  What I am going to do tonight is give a chance to the part of America 
that isn't often heard from, the people that have lost their jobs, the 
people who have lost their homes, and tonight the people who have lost 
their lives; the people who lost their lives because they had no health 
coverage, they had no health insurance, and so they died.
  There are 44,789 Americans who die every year for lack of health 
insurance. There are 122 who die every day. In the course of my speech 
tonight, there will be five more. I wish we would act quickly to end 
this national tragedy.
  So I am going to yield my time tonight to the people who wrote to us 
and told us the stories of ones they loved and lost at this Web site, 
NamesOfTheDead.com. Hundreds and hundreds of people have written since 
last week when we established this site, and they have told us stories 
about the people who they loved and lost because they had no health 
insurance. So let's begin.
  Stephen Martin wrote to us as follows concerning Thomas Martin of 
Santa Cruz, California. Steve wrote:

[[Page H12032]]

  ``Tom had a hernia, but also thought something else might be wrong 
with him down there. He had no insurance, so he kept putting off the 
hernia operation. After he finally did get the hernia operation, out of 
total necessity, he realized that indeed something else was going on. 
He had little money, so he put off having it looked into, until his 
bowels were totally blocked. It was a tumor. Colon cancer. He still 
didn't get treatment for months until he could get medical help from a 
government program. He died a year later.
  ``The biggest problem is all the delays that happen if someone 
doesn't have health insurance; not having the money, not knowing how to 
get help, hoping the problem isn't serious, and trying to ignore it 
until it is too late.''
  This is the first of several real live stories we will be hearing 
tonight from the people who Jesse Jackson used to call the 
dispossessed, the despised and the dammed; the people who never get any 
help.

                              {time}  1700

  The people who never get any help. All we can do for them now is 
simply remember them and honor them with these stories.
  David Clark wrote regarding Christopher Gordon Clark of Key West, 
Florida:
  ``My brother Christopher died of colon cancer. He lived with symptoms 
for years because he was poor and didn't see a doctor. He was an actor 
and worked low-paying retail and service jobs that never offered health 
insurance. By the time he was in too much pain to work and he went to 
the emergency room, it was too late. Tumors had grown too big and it 
spread throughout his body. Colon cancer is, of course, nearly 100 
percent avoidable through early detection and polyp removal.''
  But that never happened for Christopher Gordon Clark, dead at the age 
of 33.
  Lynn Long wrote to us about Jim Bowles at the Web site 
namesofthedead.com. She wrote as follows:
  ``Jim was a longtime friend and the best electrician around. He could 
fix anything. Most of the time he worked for small companies and 
repaired small appliances. The small firms never offered him health 
insurance. Jim was my neighbor. This time of year we would get out the 
lawn decorations, the fog machine and really do it up big for 
Halloween. But Jim died 2 years ago. By the time he was diagnosed with 
bladder cancer, it was too late and the cancer had spread. Had he had 
yearly checkups and screenings through regular health care, he would be 
here today. I miss Jim terribly and so does his daughter.''
  Let's hear now from Sally York writing about Ricky Ramsey:
  ``Ricky was on his mother's health insurance until he turned 19, and 
because he was unable to find a job that offered insurance or one that 
he could afford to buy insurance, he went without. It was December, 5 
years ago. He had been complaining of not feeling well for a few days. 
His mother finally told him to go to the hospital emergency. They said 
it was the flu and sent him home. It was Christmas Eve and he called 
his mom and said that he was so sick; he could not get out of bed. She 
went over to his apartment and took him again to the hospital 
emergency, and he died. They said it was from the complications of the 
flu. But Mother was not satisfied with that answer. After an autopsy, 
they discovered that he had one of the killer bacteria that is 
antibiotic resistant. Nineteen years old and dead because he was being 
shuffled in the system because he had no insurance.
  Let's hear now from Jane Alexander about Tim Crowder of Saint 
Charles, Missouri:
  ``Tim was our neighbor's son-in-law. He was having chest pains for a 
couple of months. He would not go to the doctor because he had no 
health insurance and could not pay out-of-pocket medical expenses. Tim 
died 2 days before his 49th birthday. We will never know for sure, but 
it's likely that Tim would have benefited from cardiocare. His death 
was preventable. He left two children and many family members and 
friends who grieve for him and his untimely death.''
  Let's listen now to T.C. Smythe about Dale Dickerson, 42 years old, 
of Houston, Texas. Smythe writes:
  ``Dale was a full-time musician and part-time photographer. He died 
of a heart attack that was caused by arterial sclerosis at the age of 
42. As a musician, he did not have access to health insurance or health 
care. I personally know more than a thousand musicians in Houston who 
have no health insurance because the cost just can't be paid for out of 
a tip jar. Musicians pay 100 percent of the retail price at the 
doctor's office, the emergency room, and the pharmacy because we do not 
make enough money for health insurance. There is no minimum wage for 
musicians, and none of us has the $300 a month necessary to get into 
the most basic plans available. America, our truly gifted songwriters 
deserve better.''
  And, for sure, Dale Dickerson deserved to live.
  Let's hear now from Linda Kozloff regarding Lacretia Ann Crowe, 58 
years old, Lyons, Colorado:
  ``My dear friend Lacretia found out in 2005 that she had `something' 
wrong with her. She originally thought that she had some type of 
stomach problems. Lacretia was independently employed and she had no 
health insurance. As she got sicker, she could no longer work, and she 
could not make her house payments. Because she had no insurance, no 
institution would take her seriously. They just bounced her back and 
forth from one office to another. She was then too sick to get a job 
that offered health insurance, even though it might have saved her. The 
computer I have here today has letter after letter saved, first 
pleading and then begging for someone to hire her so that she could get 
some health care. By the time she was nearly disabled by ovarian 
cancer, her fate became inevitable. She tried desperately at the end to 
get on some type of Medicare or Medicaid, but because she owned her 
house and several old vehicles, she could not qualify. As she suffered 
beyond imagination, she tried to sell everything off, her house and all 
her possessions, and ended up in hospice, where I witnessed her gradual 
overdose by morphine until she died. Her house was foreclosed and all 
her possessions were gone. She died on March 7, 2007, at 2:51 a.m.''
  Let's hear now about Vicky Johnson from David Trotter:
  ``Vicky had been bleeding for 2 years. When I made a trip to see her, 
she told me she was afraid to go to the doctor because of the potential 
costs. By the time she was diagnosed, she had lung, brain, and ovarian 
cancer. She only lived about 3 months after that. To see the terror in 
her eyes as she dealt with this is something no civilized person could 
watch and then deny her the help she needed.'' David adds, ``I am 
ashamed of my country.''
  Let's hear about Cindy Rhea from David Twiggs:
  ``Cindy was a custodian who worked for Southeastern Custodial 
Services in Knoxville, Tennessee. They had Knox County Government 
custodial contracts. I worked for the Election Commission in Knox 
County, and Cindy was assigned to our building. The contractor, 
nonunion, of course, did not provide insurance for its workers at 
Cindy's level. I know this because one of the employees who works in 
the HR department of this company was my daughter's best friend in high 
school. Cindy had a heart condition and she had to take medication 
regularly to survive. She did a good job and she was always friendly. 
One day she didn't come into work. We found out later that day that her 
teenage son found her dead in bed. He was a senior in high school. 
Cindy couldn't afford her medication as it was prescribed, so she just 
alternated her medications to make them last longer. She was not 
educated enough to realize that this made the medication not work as 
intended. Not having health care killed Cindy and left an indelible 
impression upon her son. I cry every time I think of her.''
  Let's hear now from Sandra Chung about Michelle Marie Pavlak, 23 
years old, Norwich, Connecticut:
  ``Michelle was the working poor with a cardiac condition: mitral 
regurgitation. She couldn't get insurance for one reason: She was 
denied for a preexisting condition. She tried to find other insurers 
but couldn't afford the premiums that would be more than three-quarters 
of her income. She could barely afford the medication, and she

[[Page H12033]]

often had to choose between food and her medication. She tried to get 
State aid, but she earned $15 above the poverty level, so was denied. 
She was 6 months pregnant. She caught bronchitis. She went to the ER 
because she couldn't get a doctor to take her on as a new patient 
because she didn't have insurance and she was a `high risk' patient 
with a preexisting condition. She made it clear she was in cardiac 
alert. She even had a medical alert bracelet. People with a cardiac 
problem, when they get an infection, no matter how minor, they are 
supposed to be given massive dosages of antibiotics and consult with a 
cardiologist and be monitored to make sure the infection didn't spread 
to her heart and other organs. The ER doctor listened to her lungs, 
pronounced she had bronchitis, gave her some Sudafed, a cough medicine, 
over-the-counter. No antibiotics, no consult with a cardiologist, no 
EEG monitoring. Without a prescription for her much-needed antibiotics, 
the infection spread to her heart, her kidneys, and her liver. She gave 
birth almost 3 months premature. My nephew, Andrew Michael, died at 10 
days old, and she died from an aneurysm caused by the infection passing 
the blood/brain barrier. In the space of 1 week, I became an aunt and 
then an only child.''

  Suzanne McKnight writes to us about Gregory Scott in Franklin, 
Tennessee, 42 years old:
  ``Two and a half years ago, my 42-year-old son died of coronary 
artery disease. He had been downsized 3 years before and he had lost 
his insurance. Since he had diabetes, he could not afford insurance and 
he couldn't get a job either because of a terrible job market. He 
stopped getting regular checkups because his money was running out and 
he was embarrassed to ask his family for help. He died 2 days after 
Christmas of 2006, and his doctor spent many nights going over anything 
that he had missed in the records. Greg might have been saved had his 
insurance followed him when he lost his job or he might have been saved 
if he could have afforded insurance. He was the middle of my three 
sons, and we have never gotten over his sudden loss and probably never 
will.''
  John Godwin writes to us about Roger Godwin, 70 years old, of 
Andover, New Hampshire:
  ``My father, Roger Godwin, died this past summer due to problems with 
our health care system. He did have insurance, but he was a victim of a 
system that is focussed more on the bottom line than care. He 
experienced severe pain in his back, but he was denied access to an MRI 
and physical therapy was prescribed instead. Physical therapy is not 
effective when the problem is a tumor growing next to your spine and, 
worse, does nothing to detect this threatening condition before it 
begins to spread. And spread it did, eventually leading to tumors in my 
father's lungs, brain, liver, and, most painfully, in his bones. He 
fought hard, but he died after a painful struggle lasting almost a 
year. My father was a veteran of the Korean War, active in local 
government, and he gave to his community in a myriad of other ways. He 
was greatly beloved by his family and those in his community. He 
deserved better.''
  And John Godwin says, ``We deserve better.''
  Joel Witherspoon wrote to us about Louis Bruce Witherspoon, 61 years 
old, of Anaheim, California:
  ``For 17 years, my father worked for a major utility here in southern 
California. At the age of 51, he was laid off and he spent 6 years 
looking for work and surviving on help from me and a meager retirement. 
He finally found work at 57 working for Tenet Health Care as a computer 
technician. It was humiliating work but it was work. In order to cut 
costs, Tenet Health Care kept him on part time for 6 years without 
benefits. He was given favorable reviews, but when he applied for full-
time positions with benefits, they were given to younger and less 
costly employees. In the middle of his 6th year, he began to develop 
respiratory issues that became progressively worse until he finally 
collapsed in the parking lot of the hospital where he worked.

                              {time}  1715

  After a week of testing, it was discovered he had terminal prostate 
cancer. The cancer had metastasized to his lungs, liver, and his brain. 
The doctors gave him only a few months to live. No doctor at the 
hospital would treat him. When pressed for answers, his boss and higher 
ups clammed up. We couldn't get any information out of any of them. 
After 3 months, he passed away in a hospital in Inglewood.''
  Let's hear now from Cortney Helmick of Port St. Lucie, Florida about 
Chris Ilijic. She wrote as follows:
  ``The love of my life and my dear best friend took his own life on 
May 9, 2009. He had a long-term drug abuse and mental health problem. 
He and his family tried to get him help over and over again with no 
luck because he had no health care insurance. He could not afford 
mental health care on his own, living on unemployment and unable to 
find new work due in part to the economy and in part to his mental 
health issues. On Tuesday, May 5, 2009, he and his mother went to a 
local mental health clinic asking for help because he was becoming 
worse. They were turned away due to an inability to pay and a lack of 
insurance. That Saturday, 5 days later, my friend took his own life. 
After many attempts for help and being rejected over and over, he felt 
there was no way out of his own mental health misery. Something needs 
to be done. My friend has just as much right to health care as 
anyone.'' And then Cortney writes, ``As we all do.''
  And now from Jasmine about Rebecca Jane Delgado of Lampasas, Texas:
  ``I found out my mother had cancer on August 23, 2007, my first day 
of classes at St. Edwards University. We were told it was ovarian 
cancer in the final stage, but some treatments were still available so 
we started with the standard, which was chemotherapy. I missed several 
classes going to sit with her while she sat amongst the other cancer 
patients at the oncology center. The first chemotherapy didn't work, so 
we tried a different one that required a special port implant. Blue 
Cross/Blue Shield didn't approve the implant, so I used what was left 
of my financial aid for school to pay for her. That didn't work either, 
so we started going to special oncology hospitals looking for 
alternative treatments. We got a nutrition plan and some pills, but 
everything else was experimental. The treatment centers wanted upwards 
of $100,000 for some new treatments that were available, but we didn't 
have that kind of money. I don't know whether the experimental 
treatments would have worked or not, but I sure would have liked to 
try. My mother died last November. I lost my mother, and I am only 23 
years old. I have no other family. I spent Christmas alone. I will do 
anything to ensure this never happens again to anyone else, ever.''
  Let's hear now from Julie Nichols about Frankie Nichols, 41 years old 
in Copeville, Texas:
  ``My husband Frankie didn't have health insurance and rarely went to 
the doctor. He was a relatively young man without any health problems. 
He came down with what we thought was pneumonia in March of 2006. I got 
him to a doctor because I had coverage through my job, but we couldn't 
afford the additional $500 monthly premium to include him. He went to 
the doctor in April 2006. After treating him for 3 weeks because he 
didn't have coverage, we were out of pocket $2,000. A CAT scan was done 
which determined he had lung cancer. The doctor advised us to go to a 
public county hospital because they were not equipped to provide 
treatment. The county we live in does not have a public hospital, so we 
went to a different county hospital elsewhere in order to get him seen. 
He was admitted through the emergency room and he stayed in the 
hospital for 2 weeks while the doctors determined the origin of the 
cancer. He received one chemo treatment and he was sent home. His next 
chemo treatment was scheduled for May 25, 2006. He died on May 24, 
2006. I think that if he had access to treatment when he first became 
ill, he would have survived a bit longer. Perhaps not, but any 
additional time he could have spent with me and our kids would have 
been precious to us. Now I am unemployed and uninsured myself. I worry 
how I will cope if I get ill and need extreme medical treatment. I have 
two kids who depend on me and have access to regular health care only 
through me. If they had access to regular health care and I knew they 
could count on it, it would lift a worry from my mind.''
  Let's hear from Andrew Latzman regarding Allen Latzman, 65 years old, 
in

[[Page H12034]]

New Rochelle, New York. Andrew wrote to us:
  ``My father, Allen Latzman had juvenile diabetes since he was 27. He 
was a successful marketing executive who lost his job in 1980. After 
that, he drove a cab in New York City for 13 years. He did not have 
health insurance because he had to support a family of two boys after 
our mother died and he simply couldn't afford it. His endocrinologist 
for years had to sneak him insulin. Over time, his complications of 
diabetes worsened, but he could not afford the proper treatment as he 
had many retail jobs, after he drove a cab, and he went without 
insurance. Despite the challenges, he was still in pretty good shape--
thin, healthy and active--until January 2003. He was walking back to 
his apartment at his job at Workbench and he slipped on the ice and 
shattered his ankle. At this point, he did have insurance through his 
employer and he went to surgery and repaired his ankle. But soon after 
that, Workbench filed for Chapter 11 and while they said that they 
would pay for their employees' health insurance up to 6 months after 
the termination of employment due to bankruptcy, the owner instead took 
all of the money he promised to allocate to insurance and he pocketed 
it. During this time, my father thought he was covered, and then he 
found out that his employer had not fulfilled his commitment. While 
this was occurring, my father's leg on which he had surgery in 2003 
began to worsen. His circulation became poor and he had difficulty 
walking. The limited mobility had made him put on weight, and he had 
become increasingly unhealthy. But he no longer had any health 
insurance. The predicament he had been put into forced him to wait over 
a year for needed surgery to turn a vein into an artery and improve 
circulation, until he was 65 and was eligible for Medicare. During this 
time related to his poor condition, he had a heart attack. This heart 
attack was found in a stress test prior to his leg surgery, but the 
endocrinologist never disclosed he had a previous heart attack before 
the leg surgery. My father went into surgery not knowing the 
seriousness of his situation, and after his surgery he had a heart 
attack post-op and he never recovered. He was hospitalized for 3 months 
in extreme pain. He might have been able to fully recover had it not 
been for a series of secondary infections that he picked up from the 
hospitalization. He died in May of 2005 at the age of 65. I was able to 
tell my father while he was still slightly lucid that he was going to 
be a grandfather for the second time. Unfortunately, my son Nate, never 
met him. My father is the signature case of a man who needed to be 
better monitored because of a chronic condition, and the lack of 
insurance and proper care killed him. Dead men tell no tales, so I will 
tell his story for him. I love you, Daddy.''
  Now let's listen to Clifford Theiss about Charles Theiss, 62 years 
old, Plant City, Florida:
  ``Carl, as we called him, was a kind and passionate brother whom we 
all loved greatly. He had spent 25-plus years employed by a trucking 
company in Tampa, Florida. One morning he arrived at work to find the 
gates had been padlocked, and a handwritten note alerting all employees 
that the company had folded. No other warnings were given. And in what 
seems like the fashion today, there was no compensation for anyone. He 
had enough 401(k) money, enough to survive on, but health insurance was 
at best a dream for him then. Being in his late fifties, he found it 
rather hard to secure employment, so he opted to retire on a minimal 
SSI. He had spoken to me occasionally about the high cost of medical 
care, but never mentioned that he was a living time bomb because he had 
a dangerous heart condition that required treatment. Carl was found 
dead in his apartment on February 3, 2008, by his daughter, a daughter 
for whom he had scrimped and saved to put through college. Ironically, 
she is now a doctor. He died in his sleep of massive heart failure. 
During the following days, his family found several unfulfilled 
prescriptions dating years back that if filled would have certainly 
saved his life or at least extended it. But due to the cost, he could 
not afford the medication. He had paid for doctors' visits out of his 
pocket, only to discover that he was doomed to die.''

  Ladies and gentlemen, I could go on and on and on. We have received 
hundreds upon hundreds of stories like this at this Web site, 
NamesoftheDead.com. These are the stories of America. These are the 
stories of people who are suffering, and people who sent us to 
Washington, D.C. to solve their problems for them. Not to debate, not 
to delay, but to keep them alive.
  The reason why I read these stories is this: Again as Lincoln said, 
in talking about these people, it is their loved ones who speak best 
for them. As Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, It is far beyond 
my poor power to add or detract. Rather, it is for the living to be 
dedicated here to the unfinished work for which these people have died. 
That, my friends, is the unfinished work of universal health care in 
America. That is our unfinished work.
  I look forward to a day I hope will come very soon, not soon enough 
for all of these people, all of these people who have died, but a day 
to come very soon when there will be no more stories like this, when 
there will be no more names to add to the Web site NamesoftheDead.com. 
And for God's sake, I look forward to the time when we will have 
finally done our jobs.

                          ____________________