[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 9, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1306-S1307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, as we move closer than ever to 
enacting legislation that delivers on the promise of secure and 
affordable health care across America, it is important to remember what 
is at stake and whom we are fighting for.
  Over the last year, I have told many of my colleagues about the Bord 
family of West Virginia and their son Samuel who suffered from 
leukemia.
  Stories like the Bords' are a reminder that our work in Congress has 
a profound and personal impact on millions of lives every day. Each of 
us brings to this critical work the shared tragic and trying personal 
experiences of our friends and neighbors back home. They are real: 
These stories are a picture of people's lives and their pain. And we 
have an obligation to honor those struggles and sacrifices by working 
to make things better for everyone. Yet recently, radio host Rush 
Limbaugh sneered at the Bords' experience, describing it and other 
stories highlighted during last week's bipartisan health care summit as 
``sob stories.'' Always the cynic, he dismissed them entirely, ``Can 
you believe these stories happen in America?'' These stories do happen 
in America--every day. And it is a shame that anyone could hear of this 
heartbreak and fail to recognize what it says so clearly about the 
terrible burden our failed health care policies have placed on 
countless families across this country.
  Rich and Amy Bord of Fairmont, WV, are two dedicated schoolteachers 
with health insurance through their employer. Let me repeat that: They 
have health insurance. Their 9-year-old son, Samuel, suffered from 
leukemia, and he needed significant invasive medical therapy. They 
thought they were covered, only to learn that their policy had a 
million-dollar lifetime cap. A million dollars sounds like a lot of 
money--and it is--they surely never would have expected to exceed it. 
But health care costs are spiraling out of control and the reality is, 
health insurance companies don't want to cover sick people.
  In addition to Samuel, the Bords have two young twin sons at home, 
and the entire family's health care decisions were impacted by Samuel's 
bills.
  After multiple rounds of chemotherapy and a relapse that required 
additional treatment for Samuel, the Bords reached their insurance 
fund's cap. Even with the help of my office and from the Public 
Employees Insurance Agency to get supplemental coverage for the Bords, 
Samuel still needed surgery and lots of additional care. Soon they 
would be approaching the next cap on their supplemental coverage. So 
the Bords were left with only heart-wrenching suggestions--consider 
getting a divorce so that Samuel would qualify for Medicaid or stop 
taking their other children to the doctor altogether, even if they get 
sick, in order to save every penny for Samuel. That is right. Get a 
divorce or choose one child's health care needs over another's. Those 
are the suggestions our Nation offered to these caring, hardworking 
parents with a sick child?
  They did everything in their power to save Samuel, but this fall, he 
passed away--and there are simply no words to ease his family's loss 
and pain.
  I understand that, to many, circumstances like these may seem rare.

[[Page S1307]]

But I cannot tell you how many times, over the many years I have served 
as U.S. Senator and before that, Governor, that I heard families' 
desperate pleas for help because their medical needs could not be met.
  It breaks my heart to think of what the Bords went through: not only 
the pain of watching their son fight a terrible disease but also the 
uncertainty of paying for his treatment when the coverage they counted 
on--and paid for--would run out. For anyone, especially a public 
figure, to aggressively question and attack a family's extraordinary 
personal anguish is deeply offensive and morally reprehensible.
  No parents should have to spend the precious, fleeting time they have 
with their child, struggling to navigate a broken system, worrying how 
they are going to provide care. And no one, especially a child like 
Samuel, should be forced to walk such a dangerous tightrope between 
life and death because he or she lacks meaningful health insurance 
coverage, because of runaway costs, and caps, and exclusions. Yet that 
growing and deeply felt insecurity runs like a common thread through 
our entire health care system.
  It is these stories--real stories of real people--and the 
unbelievable pain behind them and the battle of so many West Virginians 
that drive me to fight for comprehensive health reform every single 
day. We must listen to these stories, take them in, and never ever 
forget them.

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