Guaranteed Healthcare

I am a 51 yr old RN who can no longer work full-time due to COPD and the related weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath. I have no healthcare insurance. I am single, and have no children, so therefore, I do not qualify for Medicaid, even though my income is well below the poverty level. I cannot afford to buy private health care insurance. I cannot afford to see the doctor. I cannot afford to buy the medications I need in order to breathe.

I have applied for Social Security Disability and been denied. It took 2 1/2 years to get through the process - 2 1/2 years of being homeless, starving, and having no money whatsoever, because I was too sick to work at all. I could hardly get from one room to the next because of being so short of breath. But yet, I "did not qualify to receive Social Security benefits". The Social Security Administration denied my claim in their "hearing", even though their "expert doctor" stated that I was "disabled and there was no job that I could do".

It took me over 2 years to find a physician to accept me as a patient, because I had no insurance. Even though I was so sick I thought I might die - I was afraid to lay down and go to sleep because I feared my lungs would fill up with fluid and I would die in my sleep. When I finally did get a doctor that would see me, I found that he was not willing to expend any extra effort on me, because I am a "charity case", and the biopsies and other tests and treatments that I know I need (because I am an RN!) have not been ordered. Because I can't pay for it.

So, therefore, I am expendable, and my needs might as well be so much trash. I have been hospitalized over 20 times in the last 4 years, and have racked up huge hospital and doctor bills which I will never be able to pay. My credit is ruined. I have lost my home. I am not homeless right now only because I live with a friend of mine who is even sicker than I am (having been diagnosed with end-stage liver disease) and whom I take care of. I am not receiving the medical care I need. I do without my medications because I can't afford to buy them. I do without seeing the doctor when I need to, because I can't afford to pay him.

Single, childless adults between the ages of 18-65 HAVE NO HEALTH CARE IN THIS COUNTRY!

What about US? Are we not human beings, too?

EVERY AMERICAN should have medical, dental, and vision care! Not just the rich. Not just the elderly. Not just children. EVERYBODY!! Quit spending money on prisons, ILLEGAL WARS, internment camps, weapons of mass destruction, police training, money to outfit the armies of other countries, illegal wiretapping programs, and the contracting of private corporations to use against the American People and start appropriating funds for healthcare for ALL AMERICANS!

Vote YES for HR 676 Universal Single-Payer Healthcare For ALL! EVERY American should have the RIGHT to enjoy the same healthcare and the same opportunity to attain the highest quality of life possible. NO American should have to suffer because they can't get medical attention!