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Page coordinator: GwenEllyn Nordquist
The Road to Hell(th) is Paved with Good Intentions
Join the Brick Project
Each brick paver in our road of infamy represents a personal health care story - tell yours*. We will share it with our legislators & others interested.
Some Colorado Health Care Stories:- A part-time Nurse Practicitioner in Montrose was denied coverage due to a borderline high cholesterol, despite good health and an average cardiac risk profile. She was denied by another insurer due to an “undiagnosed breast mass,” a benign lump.
- A family faced a 'Sophie’s Choice' when the breadwinner was laid off - the decision whether to insure the diabetic wife or their daughter who had had a kidney transplant. “Being unemployed, the cost of COBRA was prohibitive, so we dropped coverage on everyone except my daughter...Health insurance is great, until you need it.”
- A psychiatric nurse practitioner reports that because of mental health funding cuts, many in need of mental health or substance abuse treatment end up in prisons or emergency rooms a much higher cost than the cost of community health treatment (e.g., $65 / day vs. $14 / day).
- Providers are overburdened by administrative paperwork - 1/3 of claims are initially denied. (Wall St. Journal, 2-14-07) One doctor reported spending 6% of her income on a billing service.
- A doctor said he feels “like I’m in a foreign country.” A woman with breast cancer and no insurance in Colorado is not eligible for surgery until she is completely disabled, “and her cancer spreads beyond her breast.”
Under and Uninsured in Colorado:
- 36.3% underinsured (2008 Study 1)
- 32.4% uninsured – nearly one out of three people under age 65 had no health insurance all / part of the two-year period 2007-2008.2
*Send your family / individual story and any donation to Health Care for All Colorado, advocates for Single-Payer Health Care Reform.
1 The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 21 (4): 309-316 (2008)
http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/content/abstract/21/4/309
2 (Study, Families USA • March 2009)
http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/americans-at-risk/colorado.pdf
HOW TO MAKE YOUR BRICK ROAD Buy several yards of 36” wide muslin at a fabric outlet. It is inexpensive and often on sale. In the top 30-36” letter the following: “The Road to Hell(th) is Paved with Good Intentions.” Then using a 2-by-4 or any other straight edge, mark the remaining yardage into bricks – 3+ across and about 12” deep. I bought a super thick Black felt tip pen at (gasp) Wal-Mart for about $2 and a set of 3 wide-tipped felt pens in 3 colors to write in the bricks. I suggest including a first name, age, health issue, and how the current system failed them. Invite people to memorialize their friends and family with a brick, and if they are so moved, give a donation to HCAC in the person’s name.
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