At a town hall meeting held by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a woman relayed her current crisis involving the brain trauma from which her husband suffers from.
‘Senator Coburn, we need help,’ said the woman, while fighting back tears. ‘My husband has traumatic brain injury and his health insurance would not cover him to even drink and what I need to know is: Are you going to help him, where he could eat and drink?
‘We left the nursing home, and they told us we’re on our own. He left with a feeding tube.
I’ve been working with him and I try to get him to eat and drink again, and this means so much to me.’
Coburn invited the woman to meet with him after the town hall meeting.
Examples like these prove health care is a difficult issue to approach. Statistics and what is beneficial to the majority ultimately dictates the laws.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 46 million Americans under the age of 65 were without health insurance in 2007.
President Barack Obama will deliver a speech to Congress addressing the health care issue at 7 p.m. today.
To many Americans, including students, health insurance is not an option.
Although they are healthy, they have no backup plan should they get into an accident or contract a life-threatening illness.
Finance senior Tin Vuong does not have health insurance because he does not have enough money. He said he feels fine.
‘If it’s just a cold, I’ll buy Tylenol,’ Vuong said. ‘If I’m poisoned or break my arm or something, I’ll go to the hospital and whatever they charge me, I’ll just have to make monthly payments on that.’
Sociology sophomore Brendan Laws once broke his nose and received stitches in his fingers. This cost him more than $1,000, and he went into debt because he could not afford the bill.
‘We need health care for every person who pay taxes,’ Laws said. ‘Every person shouldn’t have to be worried about health insurance because it’s a human right.’
Other students such as David Dawkins have no idea what they would do if they were injured. He said he relies on a higher power for health.
‘By the grace of God, I’d be all right,’ Dawkins said. ‘(I) rely on the faith that God has better things in store for me, Jeremiah 29:11.’
But for others, worry replaces faith.
University Studies senior Travis Ellis recently recieved a bone marrow transplant. He has insurance, but it will end when he graduates.
‘I am becoming pretty anxious about (graduating),’ Ellis said. ‘I am too old to be considered under my parents insurance and if I don’t get a job offer at the end of the school year, I am going to be in a bad situation.’
For Ellis, it is a life and death matter that leaves him in a bleak situation.
‘I have a condition that forces me to go to the doctor every six weeks, and I will have to take expensive medication for the rest of my life,’ Ellis said.
‘I just can’t afford to not have insurance, but if I don’t have a job next year, I won’t be able to afford insurance, either
