If you read the New York Times, Washington Post, or USA Today, you might have noticed an eye-popping ad Monday -- and we hope you too will sign our petition and tell us your story.
Under a news headline reading, "Cheney Treated in Hospital For an Irregular Heartbeat," the ad noted, "If he were anyone else, he'd probably be dead by now."
Four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, angioplasty, an implanted defibrillator, an emergency procedure for an irregular heart beat.
Getting the care he needs, when he needs it? No problem.
The ad asks readers to sign a petition telling the Presidential candidates and elected representatives to insist on the same level of care - CheneyCare - for all Americans, and to support HR 676, an improved and expanded Medicare for everyone. The petition is on line at www.cheneycare.org. We hope you'll sign it and also tell us your insurance horror story.
Some other Americans with heart problems not named Dick Cheney are fortunate enough to receive care when they need it.
But for millions more, the prognosis would be far more murky.
If not currently insured, forget it. You'd never be able to buy a policy no matter how many tens of thousands a year you were willing to spend. When you need care, you'd have to go to the emergency room, and good luck paying the bill.
- Find a reason to deny the next procedure recommended by your physician claiming it is "experimental," "investigational," or an "unproven service." Those were the excuses used by CIGNA in the now widely known case in which it rejected the pleas of her doctors to authorize a liver transplant to 17-year-old Nataline Sariksyan of Glendale, Ca..
- Insist you repay the company for that last bypass surgery because they discovered you failed to disclose a skin rash when you were 20. As former insurance industry consultant Lee Einer says in Michael Moore's SiCKO," "it's not unintentional. It's not a mistake. You're not slipping through the cracks. They made the crack and are sweeping you toward it."
- Levy massive increases for your individual or group premiums and establish new restrictions. That's what happened to Nathan Wilkes of Greenwood Village, Co. whose son, Thomas, was born with severe hemophilia. Suddenly his company's group rates were hiked 40 to 55 percent each year, and a lifetime cap of $1 million a year was established for all company employees.
- Drop your coverage.
There must be a better system. The one enjoyed by the Vice President and members of Congress is one. A government-financed healthcare system with few restrictions or prohibitive costs.
We're also urging people to join our campaign for HR 676, a bill that now has 87 co-sponsors, more than any other healthcare legislation in Congress and a ton of community supporters from coast to coast.
In the coming year, we will be celebrating the national election campaign by bringing the message of HR 676 to every Congressional district in the nation, and urging everyone to press their legislator to act to place the bill on the desk of the next President. Join us.