Science
(2009-06-18)
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COLUMBIA, MO
(KBIA) -
The Health Care for America Now campaign will be delivered in Washington, D.C. next week for a national debate. Grass Roots Organizing is one of the 44 groups who are campaigning for a new and improved health care system for the United States. KBIA's Rachel Moten has more.
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GRO's Board Member, Wendy Brumbaugh, will be a representative heading off to Washington, D.C. on June 25th for the Health Care for America Now campaign. She, Bethel, Missouri resident, could have plenty of reasons why she is not happy with the health care system. One of her main reasons for going to the lobbying campaign is to stress that it is time for more Missouri citizens to become insured and for the insured to gain affordable quality health care. Brumbaugh is not only a representative, but a mother whose 30-year-old son became disabled.
"My son was 25 and he had a serious automobile accident. Had a traumatic brain injury as well as a broken neck and back, and he was in the hospital for about eight months going through therapy. He is disabled now and he had no health insurance at the time and his bill was over a million dollars."
Brumbaugh knew there was one only way to pay for this.
"We knew that the only way for us to pay that bill would be through bankruptcy and we were fortunate he did get some Medicaid and helped to pay the bill but now he is on Missouri disability, he has Missouri Health Net and his spend down is over $750 a month."
When Brumbaugh applied for him to obtain coverage for counseling sessions, the Missouri Health Net denied him.
"It won't pay for his counseling so he can't go to a counselor. He told me today that he's not taking his medication that he needs terribly to keep functioning because he can't afford it."
Because of Brumbaugh's case and many others, GRO Executive Director, Robin Acree, says Missouri citizens need to fight together against Missouri's current health care system.
"We feel that now is the time to look to the national to do the right thing for the people in Missouri. That's why we've joined in with a coalition of 44 groups like us around the country to be apart of what is called Health Care for America Now. We felt that it was a campaign we needed to invest in if we wanted to make sure that we had a voice in the debate at the national level."
Brumbaugh will bring another perspective with her to D.C. She knows what it's like to be an employer who can't provide health insurance coverage to her employees.
"I'm also a small business owner so, and my husband is self-employed and has a small business and we cannot afford insurance for our employees so that's a whole other perspective that I think that's really important in rural Missouri and so I'm going to take that perspective with me too."
She hopes to express the immediate need for Missouri citizens to have better health care coverage.
"My message is that rural Missouri is being lost as far as affordable health care and I want to get the message across that we need affordable all inclusive health care and we need it now."
Brumbaugh's son is one of the five million uninsured because of unaffordable health care. She will not only be going to D.C. next week to change her son's life, but the lives of many others who yearn to have health care as a right and not a privilege.
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