story from that site and email it to my congresscritters with a renewal of my personal demands for Universal Health Care.

My mom died of cancer in the fall of 2004.  I am so glad we never had to deal with Part D.  Can you imagine dealing with terminal cancer and insurance problems too?  

I was disabled myself for a while.  How can they expect you to figure out the ins and outs of insurance when you're sick?  But they do.  

and she's in India.  (She's still only stage 2, happily, so no imminent danger.)  No insurance.  Everyone in the family will chip in for her treatment, but it's going to be rough financially nevertheless.  I'm not sure they could do it at all without contributions from my husband and me, since our salaries are so much higher.

People in this country who lack insurance are in the position of those in India who aren't lucky enough to have sent children to richer countries.  It's a tragedy.  

I'm glad your Mom made it to remission.

I lurk on another board that is concerned with financial stuff. Many posters are obviously in high-paying positions based on their comments about number of properties they own, etc. I'd say they are more in the 28-38 age group.

I think when they hear about these impossibly high health costs, they just figure, "Well, too bad. It's their fault, and they are old, anyway." In your twenties and thirties, your eighties look to be pretty far away. And besides, you are healthy and belong to a health club and eat the best food.

I think most adult children have been around an elder or two who rattles off all their ailments, and all their medications and surgeries. When it is just stated as fact, and not as the only topic of conversation, I think most of us past forty are probably willing to listen to our folks, and look to find ways to ease their difficulties if we can.

My guess is, when younger professionals hear this stuff, it's like hearing people from some third world country. Who in the world wants to go on after  two cancers and a heart attack? Why do they still want to live? Can't they see how much money (inheritance) this is chewing up? Too bad, and all that, but get real. If it happened to ME, I would just end it all...

Of course we have the exercise-addicted president who likes to imply that following a healthy regimen will prevent any health problems, and that we ought to take responsibility for our own health. Trouble is, many of the people who fought WWII, who participated in the tremendous growth of this country in the boom years can't just go back now and  keep from injuring a back or catching high blood pressure before it becomes a serious health problem.
All they can do is what they can manage, now.

Most everybody can feel some sympathy for a cute child with a serious illness. Once they start to get older, though, they're just another sick person that  we don't really want to think about. Being sick is like being poor. Many people are uncomfortable with thoughts of illness and weakness and mortality.

We need some way to make the health of our citizens everybody's business. The program that tells real stories is a good idea, but is it enough to tweak the conscience of young go-getters climbing the ladder to success? As long as they see universal health as a drag on their personal wealth-building capability, they are not going to want to support it.

Finally, my apologies to the many many under forties on kos who don't fit the same profile I described here. I know there are plenty of younger Americans who care what happens to older Americans. I just don't see it too often on message boards that focus on building capital.

Last year, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She's in her 70's.  She was very lucky.  It was caught as a tumor in it's earliest stages.  She was treated with radiation therapy for 6 weeks.  It's been a year and I can report she is still cancer-free.  She also had insurance to back up Medicare.  Fortunately.  But my parents weren't so fortunate as far as my dad was concerned.

My dad died in 2001 after battling lung cancer for seven years.  I truly believe it was his own will that kept him battling for all those years after all he'd been through.  The insurance company they'd paid so much into, of course, let them down.  They covered just so many of his chemo treatments.  And only just so many of his prescriptions.  Five years after his death, my mom is still paying off credit card bills because my dad used his cards to get medication or pay bills he had no other way to pay for.  He was on a fixed income because his illness forced him into retirement early.  Mind you, my mom is on a fixed income now.  But this wasn't the end of the story.  I recently found out something about my dad's care that I didn't know, thanks to a medical crisis that struck my pet cat.

About three weeks ago, a pet cat of mine became ill and I had to rush her to a vet hospital.  After a couple of days in hospital, she took a bad turn.  I was faced with a decision.  To have her put to sleep now, or give her more time to recover.  Plus, I was faced with a rising bill.  While faced with this dilemma I talked to my mom about what to do. During the conversation, my mom told me something about my dad.  In the earliest months after he was diagnosed with cancer, his oncologist told him that there was a medication that would help him.  It was just what he needed to help his cancer.  But my parents couldn't afford it.  In the last few weeks, this thought has popped up again and again in my mind.  They couldn't afford it.  So I'm left to wonder--would my father be alive today if their insurance covered it?  It's a thought that does not bear up under close examination without bringing up a lot of hurt.  To help my dad, my parents did everything they could and then some.  If they couldn't get this medicine, it must have been way beyond them.  My parents became casualties in the war on the middle class by the insurance companies.  

Btw, if you have a pet or pets, I'd recommend getting health insurance for them, too.  I now wish I hadn't waited to long to do it.  My cat was hospitalized for eight days.  After initial improvements, her health took a bad turn and she died.  Now I have a big vet bill to pay off and it will not be easy for me.  At least pet health insurance would've offset some portion of the cost.  If you think a young, indoor cat can't become gravely ill, believe me, it can happen.  The burden can be as much as a human illness.  It helps to be prepared.  If, you can afford it.  It hurts me to finally, fully realize that who lives and who dies, human or animal, depends on how much money is in your bank account.