Healthcare Homefront: Excerpts from Senator Tester's Emails

The below story is from a series of emails Senator Tester sent to his distribution list to highlight the importance of health care reform. These are real stories from real Montanans, and their experiences show how the health care reform legislation now being debated in the U.S. Senate will benefit other Montanans in similar situations.
Stay tuned this week for more stories from real folks around the state.

HEALTH CARE HOMEFRONT #4
"Nothing left"
Name:  William Simonsen
Home:  Bigfork

Bill Simonsen, a writer and editor from Bigfork, was diagnosed with lymphoma back in 1996.  Fortunately, he had health insurance.  But it wasn’t enough to protect his family from the high cost of treating the cancer.

Bill has been in remission for several years now. But now he has “nothing left.”

"I know how lucky I am to survive cancer this long, but I am also unlucky enough to have lost all of my savings, my kid's college fund and what small retirement fund I had set aside."

It was more than his own money that helped him get through. The generous citizens of Bigfork even held a fundraiser to help pay for his "insanely expensive" chemotherapy.

After "unending deductibles, co-pays and necessary treatments" that weren't covered by his insurance, Bill says "there is nothing left, not even life insurance, so my children are going to get stuck paying for my funeral."

Bill knows that reforming health care isn’t an easy task, but he tells me:

"It is far too easy to lose track of the simple overarching fact that health care reform is a matter of life and death to so many."

WHAT WILL HEALTH CARE REFORM DO?

The health care legislation we're working on now would eliminate the need for people like Roxy to "walk a tightrope" because under our plan, everyone will be able to get affordable insurance.  If you like your plan you can keep it.  If you don't, you'll be able to pick an affordable plan that's best for you and your family (there will be tax credits and certian exemptions to ensure that insurance is affordable).  When everyone is insured, it will spread the risk, so people with insurance aren't paying to cover people without insurance who go to the emercency room -- and it will lower the overall cost of health care.

 If you have any stories you’d like to share about the need for health care reform, or if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please call Senator Tester toll-free at (866) 554-4403. You can also or drop him a note online.

Visit tester.senate.gov/health to read other Healthcare Homefront emails, and for information about health care reform, including the full text of the Senate bill.