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The health-care-reform debate, which seems to be turning into fear mongering from the right and the silly need for bipartisanship from the left, causes me to shed tears over the fears being pushed on the American people, which may be causing proponents to back off. I had great hopes that our new president would take the bull by the horns and usher in a new more equitable way of life by virtue of the fact, he could. He has a majority in all branches of government, many allies and direct experience with a broken health care system; a mother who battled insurance companies as she drew her last breath and died of cancer. How many similar stories around the country are there? I'll tell you - too many to count. Here's my one little story; put yourself in my shoes.

My daughter, a young newlywed, worked, went to school, paid her taxes and had a husband who did the same. But after her husband's job moved them back to his hometown, she had to quit her job and thus, lost her insurance. She had been suffering for several months with intermittent fevers, an uncontrollable cough and flu like symptoms and had been treated a couple of times with antibiotics. Now, without insurance, they researched insurance companies trying to find coverage they could afford since her husband's construction job did not offer insurance. With only one income, and my daughter still too sick to even think of searching for work, not even a major medical plan fit into their limited budget.

A month after their move, she became so tired of having difficulty breathing, having to sleep sitting up, and the intermittent fevers and drenching night sweats, she paid out-of-pocket for a doctor visit and was sent for a simple chest x-ray. What that x-ray showed would change their lives forever. A 14 x 11 x 8 cm mass loomed largely in her primary media steinem. It had collapsed her right lung, infiltrated her heart, and had in the exact words on the initial report, obliterated her superior vena cava, the main vein that carries oxygenated blood to the heart. We wondered how long this bright, beautiful young woman would survive since she didn't have health insurance, and the county hospital where she was diagnosed didn't have the staff to treat her serious condition.

She was lucky. She lives in California and Medi-Cal, the government run health program for people who can't afford insurance, approved her request for full medical coverage. After five days of searching for a facility to take her case, the head

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