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We Need Single-Payer Healthcare, Improved Medicare for All
by Diane Kilby

Hello!  My name is Diane Kilby.  I grew up in San Antonio.  I am the mother of three grown children and two grandchildren.  I have a bachelor's degree in nursing, and was employed as a home supervisor until June of 2006, when I became disabled.

What happened to me happens to too many Americans.  I became ill, so ill that my doctors told be that I was receiving as much treatment as there was for my condition.  I was told at age 53 that my only option would be to get a lung transplant.  My health status was expected to decline until my incapacity and eventual death.  After being unable to continue my nursing position, I ended up with ho healthcare and a two-and-a-half-year wait until Medicare would cover me as a disabled person.  No insurance company would take my application after disclosure of my need tor a transplant and, until that would happen, high-priced medication and oxygen.

Well, I'm pretty stubborn.  I made it through that period, paying for my own oxygen and medications as best I could.  But I am still trapped by an insurance-run system that denies and limits my choices of healthcare by telling me where I can go for surgery, what medicines I can take, and which doctors I can see.  But this is about so much more than my story.  I've seen my patients and twenty-something children struggle with no coverage or inadequate policies.

My younger son, working two part-time jobs, was not covered by his newspaper, who would only employ him 29 hours a week.  When he was injured by a fall, he paid to see an orthopedic surgeon.  However, the surgeon would do nothing without a CAT scan.  At a cost of $1,400, this was insurmountable for him.  He limped for the better part of a year, refusing to accept help from me, knowing I had no more money than he.  I've also had to see my daughter with the same problems of poor coverage.

During my practice as a nurse, I saw my patients unable to afford medicine that the doctor prescribed.  I would encourage them to call the doctor's office and ask to replace it with a lower-cost medicine.  Unfortunately, I didn't find out until I was in their place that doctors' offices are often just as helpless with no resources.  If you don't fit into this program or that, it's just too bad.

I grew up as an Army brat with healthcare until age 18.  Whenever I needed it, no questions, I would just go when I or someone in my family got sick or injured.  Thirty-eight years later, I am still horrified that the dollar or the right employer is the driving force behind whether people will get the care and medicine that they need.

Single-payer healthcare gives us the opportunity to be treated fairly, whether rich or poor, without regard for skin color or religion.  July like the police department, the library, or the fire department: everybody in and nobody out.  If my house was burning, the fire department would come anytime they were called.  No questions about whether I was in their plan or whether I would have my co-pay available when they arrived.

The problem is that the system seems to value property more than human life.  A house can be rebuilt.  A human life, such as your mother, child or friend, simply cannot.  Every day, people die or are maimed by a system that puts the almighty dollar ahead of caring for the health and well-being of ourselves and our neighbors.

The Senate committee that is now looking at healthcare is listening primarily to the fox that inhabits our chicken coop.  The insurance companies, medical supply companies and pharmaceutical companies want to make sure their piece of the pie remains at the status quo.  The insurance industry has become so bloated with profits that they have forgotten the meaning of the word coverage
and now focus on denial.  To increase their bottom line, they automatically deny anyone who is already ill for pre-existing conditions.  We're talking about basic hypertension, diabetics, or conditions as normal as simply being a pregnant woman.  These insurance companies are even being subsidized by the government, which covers the high-risk portion of society, such as the elderly, the disabled, and at times, the poor through Medicare and Medicaid.

Only the healthy and young need apply, which allows the insurance companies to meet their profit margins and makes shareholders smile.  As for the rest of us, good luck at finding an affordable plan that will be there when you need it.

What are our values?  What do we really care about and need from our government? 

For me, it's Healthcare for All, Everybody In, and Nobody Out, a single-payer system that will cut out the middleman of insurance and save us 30% of our healthcare dollars.  It is the only system that will save us from the spiraling cost of this arcane system.

Call your Congressional representatives.  Write to the president.  We need single-payer healthcare, improved Medicare for all.


Diane Kilby is a steering committee member of the San Antonio Healthcare-Now Coalition.  This page is the speech that she gave at a single-payer rally at Austin City Hall Plaza.