Good article in the Dallas Morning News
This article is about an upper-middle class family that has lost it all because of the husband losing his job. The mom was reduced to panhandling:
Standing on a street corner in Coppell last winter, Sheila Wessenberg questioned her sanity as she turned desperately toward a line of cars, held out a coffee can and prayed that someone would drop money in it. How low did the family go?
In the previous year, Mrs. Wessenberg had been diagnosed with breast cancer. After her husband lost his six-figure job, she had to stop chemotherapy treatments. There was no way the family could afford health insurance when the premiums jumped to $837 a month. Her doctor gave her 18 months to live.
:
Public begging was a last resort in a long and painful process of dismantling their previous life. First, they liquidated his pension plan and cashed in their stock portfolio. Then they moved out of an expensive condominium in Las Colinas. And, finally, they sold off nonessentials such as her fur coat and jewelry, any furniture with value and even their washer and dryer.
They family got a very lucky break - their story was put in a book, then picked up by the NY Times Magazine, and they eventually got on the Today show. They are doing okay for now:
Mr. Wessenberg signed a two-month contract in June to provide computer support at TXU Corp. "We can tread water as long as the contract lasts," he says. If the contract is not renewed, however, he will again be looking for a job.
This is why I support nationalized catastrophic health insurance. I too have been long-term unemployed and was forced to go without health insurance, but that was during my 30's and I didn't have any problems. Today, anyone can suddenly hit hard times and some form of health insurance needs to be a part of the safety net.
Conceptual Guerilla has a long piece on "cheap-labor conservatives." Here is his/her take on health care:
Health care costs are outrageously expensive, and threaten people with financial ruin. Also, health insurance is primarily provided by employers through “group plans”. So if you lose your job, you lose your health coverage. This is not quite as a big a problem, since the passage of COBRA – which was opposed by guess who? That’s right, the cheap-labor conservatives.
In short, national health insurance would provide a huge measure of security for working Americans from potential financial catastrophe – which catastrophe is therefore no longer a force keeping you suitably intimidated by your employer. I couldn't agree more.
7:18:19 AM 
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