Names of the Dead

During the course of our 19 year marriage I was self- employed and was unable to afford the high cost of health care insurance. Premimums for family coverage were around $800.00 per month. In the early days, I paid cash for all our medical care and quite often recieved discounts for paying cash. In more recent years, the first question, at a doctor visit was, "what insurance do you have". After replying "I have none", they did everything they could to get me out of their office OR , I believe, they increased the rate they would charge. My wife knew there was something wrong for a very long time but was reluctant to go to the doctor because of the cost and no insurance coverage. By the time she did go, Heidi was diagnosed with stage 4 Breast Cancer that had spread to her liver. Far to late for any effective treatment. She passed away 7 weeks later. Lawmakers are disscussing how to reform "Healthcare Insurance". I don't believe this is the real issue. Healthcare insurance companies are only players, legally authorized to practice extortion on the American public. The real problem is with the rates charged by doctors and healthcare facillities. A doctor charged $459 for seeing my wife for less than 15 minutes. That is $1,836.00 per hour. EXCUSE ME!!! The hospital charged over $15,000.00 for a five day stay. The reason I took my wife to the hospital was to get a needle biopsy performed to isolate exactly what type of cancer she had. This is only a ten minute procedure that was finally done in her room. Why did it take five days to get this done? So they could run the bill up??? Healthcare providers are exploiting the insurance companies and in turn the American people. The days of "Dr. Kildare' and "Doc Adams" practicing medicine because they wanted to help fellow Americans are over. The new incentive of healthcare providers is nothing short of GREED!! The lawmakers should focus on this problem and perhaps consider abolishing the insurance companies altogether I want to thank Mr. Grayson for bringing attention to the issue of people dying simply because they don't have access to healthcare. If you don't have insurance... you don't have healthcare. I am confident my wife would be here and healthy today if I had access to healthcare.