While campaigning in Sandusky, OH on July 5th, President Obama received a hug from a tearful Stephanie Miller whose sister, Kelly Hines, died of colon cancer at the age of 37. She
got a chance to personally thank the president for passing the health care law that the Supreme Court upheld last week.
Miller recounted her brief exchange with the president, in which Obama told her he was sorry to hear about her sister's death, and that he would keep Hines in his thoughts.
"He said he would keep on fighting for us -- and that our fight is not over," Miller told HuffPost.
h/t to Scarce for the photos:
As the president was working the rope line, he consoled a crying woman who was telling him a story. Pool reached the woman, Stephanie Miller, by phone and got these details.
Ms. Miller said her sister, Kelly Hines, died from colon cancer four years ago because she could not afford proper health insurance. She had no employer-provided coverage
“Even after she was diagnosed with cancer, she was told her income was too high for Medicaid,” Ms. Miller said.
“I thanked him for the getting the Affordable Health Act passed,” she said.
Miller's sister's story illustrates the dismal current state of the American health 'care' system. A single mother of two young sons, Kelly Hines was uninsured when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. She applied for Medicaid but did not meet the progam's financial requirements. She started a job with an employer who did offer health insurance but had to choose between working and getting treatment.
Hines soon began a new job where she was given employer-sponsored health care coverage, but as a new employee she needed to be present in the workplace, which ultimately interfered with her cancer treatment.
Hines clocked anywhere from 40 to 80 hours a week, despite her weakening condition. "She worked until she couldn't anymore so that she could provide for her kids," said Miller.
Following a 15-month struggle, Hines succumbed to the disease -- leaving behind her sons, 10 and 15, at the time.
So now her children will no doubt need and receive more financial government assistance than health insurance would have cost, in typical pennywise pound foolish fashion.
Miller and her two younger daughters are also uninsured until she completes her employer's one-year probationary period before they allow her to have health insurance. She is looking forward to the day when her daughters, 20 and 22, can be on her health plan. Asked about her emotions when the law was upheld she said:
"We needed that desperately," Miller continued. "I know what it's like to watch somebody that you love die from a disease that had they been able to have health care [coverage], they could still be here. Nobody should ever have to go through that. Her sons should not have to suffer without their mother."
Kelly Hines is the type of person Mitt The Merciless would leave in the lurch, to fend for themselves and die.
President Barack Obama, right, talks to Stephanie Miller after speaking at an ice cream social at Washington Park in Sandusky, Ohio, Thursday, July 5, 2012. Miller's sister, Kelly Hines, died from colon cancer four years ago. She could not afford proper health insurance, had no employer-provided coverage, and "even after she was diagnosed with cancer, she was told her income was too high for Medicaid," Miller said. Miller thanked Obama for the getting the Affordable Health Act passed. (Susan Walsh, Associated Press)