Feb 05 2010
Update: President Obama’s Remarks on Melanie Shouse
As David wrote on Tuesday, our friend, Melanie Shouse, passed away because she did not recieve necessary care for her breast cancer. A tireless advocate for health care reform, Melanie attracted attention of President Obama yesterday:
I got a letter — I got a note today from one of my staff — they forwarded it to me — from a woman in St. Louis who had been part of our campaign, very active, who had passed away from breast cancer. She didn’t have insurance. She couldn’t afford it, so she had put off having the kind of exams that she needed. And she had fought a tough battle for four years. All through the campaign she was fighting it, but finally she succumbed to it. And she insisted she’s going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt. (Laughter.)
But think about this: She was fighting that whole time not just to get me elected, not even to get herself health insurance, but because she understood that there were others coming behind her who were going to find themselves in the same situation and she didn’t want somebody else going through that same thing. (Applause.)
How can I say to her, “You know what? We’re giving up”? How can I say to her family, “This is too hard”? How can Democrats on the Hill say, “This is politically too risky”? How can Republicans on the Hill say, “We’re better off just blocking anything from happening.” That can’t be the message that the American people are delivering. Yes, they’re nervous, they’re anxious, they’re in a tough time right now. The thing they want most are jobs. They really don’t like the process in Washington, the sausage-making. That part I understand. But I know that they don’t — but I know they don’t want to just offer nothing to the millions of people in America who are in the situation that that woman was in.
That’s what we campaigned on. And we are going to keep on working to get it done — with Democrats and I hope with Republicans and everybody else in between — to bring down costs, to end the worst practices of the insurance industry, to finally give every American the chance to choose quality, affordable health care. We are going to keep on working to get it done. (Applause.)
Sadly, Melanie is just one of the tens of thousands of people who die every year because of a lack of health insurance or being under-insured.
Stay tuned for more information.
I am a cancer survivor. I had coverage and chose to use it. t saved my life. Every day I thank God I had it at the time.
According to an earlier post Melanie apparently did have catastrophic coverage and chose not to use it. You give no further information as to why her insurer declined further treatment. They may very well have been within their rights. When you sign an insurance form you are committing to an agreement as is the insurer.
I understand the decision to ignore a health problem because of monetary situations. That was her decision. Just as my decision to decide against corrective surgery on my left eye was partly monetary. But the initial decision to have the cancer delat with initially not only cost me the use of my left eye, but cost my insurance company much more than I’d given them up to that point and they paid the bills they were obligated to with no hesitation. They were under contract to do so.
The President of the United States lied and someone died. Where have I heard this before?
Glenn,
1. She did get treatment, but she had a $5,000 deductible that delayed the beginning of her treatment. Please consider her story:
“When Melanie Shouse began feeling ill, eventually finding a lump in her breast, she couldn’t afford a doctor. She and her partner had just used their savings to open a business.”
“A year later, when she was finally able to afford to see doctors, they told her she had terminal, stage four breast cancer. She spent the next 4½ years fighting for health care reform that she didn’t live to see pass.”
“She took the bus to and from her chemotherapy appointments in the Central West End. Then she’d pick up a sign or banner and walk a picket line.”
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/deathsobituaries/story/B800B952053456C7862576C000092F86?OpenDocument
2. Of what lie are you talking about?
Melanie Shouse descansa en paz y te pedimos que desde arriba nos ayudes para que los mandatarios de las naciones comprendan tu lucha y solucionen el problema
amigos he difundido en mi block
http://babyseals.ning.com/profiles/blogs/melanie-shouse-partio-al-cielo
CEOs do not need their big bonuses, they get paid enough in salaries. We must hold these higher ups accountable for their disaccountabilities towards their workers. They can afford to pay for health care for all Americans, because of their vast wealth, resources, revenues and incomes. Big businesses budgeting and management is largely misplaced. A corporation’s fundings belongs to all the workers and not only for big managers. They must get this right or they will fail their country, their workers and humanity big time. Quality health care for all is humane and necessary for a productive society. Do wrong and everything will break lose. I know all Americans can have health care, it’s in the books, meaning those large fundings being misplaced to higher management, $1,000,000,000and more is a lot of money and enough to pay for health care for all people in our country.
Isn’t that interesting. President Obama admits that the core problem for Ms Shouse (and many like her) is that she *couldn’t afford insurance.* And yet Congress’s answer to “can’t afford it” is “everyone must buy it.” Sorry, subsidies just aren’t going to change the fact that health insurance is too expensive and going up.