Please WATCH this heart-breaking video, which was taken by nyceve at a free clinic in Kansas City about two months ago.
It's why we scheduled our call-in campaign to Congress for the 24th and the 25th. Our politicians need to wake the fuck up, listen to people like those in Eve's videos, and do the right thing on health care reform! Please join our Facebook campaign, where we've gotten over 1,700 members ready to burn up the lines to Congress!
HERE'S A LINK TO THE 2/24 AND 2/25 1,000,000 CALLS FOR HEALTHCARE FACEBOOK PAGE, PLEASE SEND IT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
It's a travesty that in the greatest nation on earth, that uninsured and underinsured people have to go to free clinics like these because they're scared and desperate enough to seek care with thousands of other people in a crowded stadium. It's not sports they're standing in line for---it's access to health care.It isn't enough what we're doing----we can't stop fighting for these people if we get the reconciliation fix passed and the Senate bill passed as well. The road is long and perilous towards our goal of real health care reform. It just doesn't stop with this Senate bill and the reconciliation fix. Eve and I will continue to fight for real health care reform!
It indeed is NOT enough for these people. Will you help us out by doing these two very simple requests below?
On Twitter, please tweet this very simple link:
Please join our Facebook campaign to #passthefix and #passthebill! http://bit.ly/... #hcr
When you join our group on Facebook, please invite your friends to join the Facebook group with you, and send the link out in an e-mail to your friends and loved ones!
HERE'S A LINK TO THE 2/24 AND 2/25 1,000,000 CALLS FOR HEALTHCARE FACEBOOK PAGE, PLEASE SEND IT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
Also, stories like these below about Cigna DENYING a deaf little girl the chance to hear are why I'm working day in and day out to fight for real health care reform. Please read this story, and understand why I'm so upset about this.
As the story of six-year-old Madison Leuchtmann of Franklin County, MO, demonstrates, even children are victims of this insurance company abuse. Madison was born with bilateral atresia, which means she lacks ear canals in both ears. In order to hear, she wears a special device on a headband that allows her to make out sounds. Despite her disability, Madison is at the top of her kindergarten class and is slowly learning to read.
Yet Madison, due to her growth, will soon require a new hearing implant to be able to recognize sounds. Her hearing and speech therapist warns that "if she doesn’t get her implants by age seven, she’s not going to be able to blend her words. ... She won’t be able to hear herself [talk]." Madison’s pediatrician, Dr. Randall Clary, also insists that without the implant, the girl may never be able to hear again.
Unfortunately, the Leuchtmann’s family insurer, Cigna, has issued "one denial after another," flatly refusing to cover the $20,000 bill for the implant. In a written statement to the local news station Fox 2, Cigna explained, "It is not unusual for commercial benefit plans to exclude hearing assisted devices," prompting Dr. Clary to angrily respond, "This is obviously medically necessary. You have a child that has no ear canals!" Dr. Clary also told Fox 2 that he sees these sort of denials "on a weekly basis."
I was seven years old in 1989 when I first got my cochlear implant. This was a very expensive surgery back then, and highly experimental as well as I was one of the few deaf children to be implanted back then. My cochlear implant surgery wasn't covered by insurance as it wasn't the standard back then---instead, my mother's family stepped up to the plate and helped pay for most of the cochlear implant surgery so that I could hear. My mom fought hard to ensure that I got my implant, and that I'd have every single tool available at my disposal in order to succeed in a hearing world. She was stubborn, and didn't believe doctors who told her I should be put in an institution and that I'd never go to college. My mother believed with all her heart that I would rise above these obstacles and succeed.
I've had my cochlear implant for over twenty years now. That's 20 years of listening, talking, and relying on the cochlear implant, and I don't know what I would do if my implant failed after all these years. That thought scares me. I hope it will never happen, but no one knows how long these implants last. Mine could last for another ten years or twenty years. It's a scary possibility to think about.
This kind of health system we face in America isn't enough. We need to do more, and we need to keep on aiming high.
PLEASE HELP US CALL TO FIX THE SENATE BILL AND TO PASS THE SENATE BILL ON THE 24th AND THE 25th!