Health-Care Debate Saps Energy of Those at Its Heart - washingtonpost.com

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By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 27, 2009

Chuck at 115 Linden Hall Lane worries about losing the monthly $9,000 infusions of a drug that keeps his lungs from collapsing. Martha, who lives at 113 and is expecting her second child, has had trouble finding a midwife. Thelma, residing at 109, fears being forced into a nursing home because insurance won't cover a home health aide. And Sarah, at 114, out thousands of dollars every year to pay for special services for her autistic son that her insurer won't cover, now faces the heart-stopping proposition of losing that coverage altogether.

The people who live around the pretty courtyard and well-kept lawns of Linden Hall Lane in Gaithersburg are like much of America. They have glaucoma and asthma. They've had foot surgeries, aneurysms and heart attacks. They've become disabled or never been sick a day in their lives. Their children have potentially life-threatening breathing problems and run-of-the-mill ear infections, colds and broken arms. Their health issues have been covered by gold-plated insurance plans, capricious for-profit firms, HMOs, Medicare and nothing.

When it comes to their health care, no one is completely happy. Everyone has a complaint. And nobody understands the way the current system works, only that it doesn't work very well.

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