[StBernard] Obama's new poster child (woman) not a good argument

[Westley Annis]

Is the below news story "the best" Obama has to convince people to support
"his version" of healtcare reform (aka Medical Insurance reform)?  First,
the woman's letter about the fear of "losing her home due to medical bills"
was simply only that - fear.  By law you cannot be forced to sell your
assets against mounting medical bills, then the story goes on where you
learn "she's getting all the cancer treatment for FREE!!!"  Then she will
qualify for Medicaid - and NO ONE is taking her home.
 
I don't know about you, but if anything, this proves the "CURRENT" system in
the U.S. works!!!!!
 
So by all means, let's change the system for 300 million people who are
happy with their medical insurance just to please a small handful of people
who might not even be satisfied with Obama's proposals.  Yep, that makes
sense to me!
 
 
 
Clinic: Ohioan championed by Obama will keep home

Published: 3/16/10, 5:45 PM EDT
By MEGHAN BARR


CLEVELAND (AP) - A cancer patient who has emerged as the emblem of President
Barack Obama's health care overhaul was stunned last month when she unsealed
a handwritten letter from none other than the president himself.

Natoma Canfield, 50, had written to Obama before the holidays to request
that he count her as a "statistic," as she put it, among the scores of
Americans unable to afford health insurance - but she never expected to get
a response.

"I still can't get over the thrill of opening that," said Canfield, who is
currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments for leukemia at the Cleveland
Clinic.

Obama traveled to northeast Ohio on Monday to champion Canfield's plight as
proof of why health care reform is so urgently needed. The self-employed
cleaning worker also stole the spotlight at Tuesday's White House press
briefing, when she was mentioned several times by press secretary Robert
Gibbs as a make-or-break vote on Obama's health care overhaul loomed over
lawmakers.

But despite the grim reality of Canfield's fight against cancer, hospital
officials say there's little validity to the Obama administration's claim
that Canfield would have to choose between her house and her health
insurance.

Canfield, who successfully battled breast cancer 16 years ago, collapsed
last week while she was carrying a bucket of grain on a friend's farm, where
she had worked for years. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was told
she had acute leukemia.

Like any patient who walks through the clinic's doors without medical
coverage, Canfield was immediately assigned an adviser to help assess
whether she was eligible for financial aid, hospital officials said.

As Obama has recounted in recent days, Canfield stopped paying for health
insurance this year after her premium more than doubled, costing $8,500 a
year, she said. Her former insurance carrier, Anthem, would not verify the
particulars associated with Canfield's policy without a privacy release.

But with a self-reported annual income of about $6,000, Canfield is a prime
candidate for financial aid in the form of Medicaid - the federal health
care program for low-income and disabled people - or charitable assistance.
And the Cleveland Clinic has no intention of putting out a lien on
Canfield's house - or letting the billing process interfere with her
treatment.

"It appears that I think she'll be fine," said Lyman Sornberger, the
hospital's executive director of patient financial services. "By nature of
the fact that she was not early on rejected by either program, that's a key
indicator that she will most likely be eligible."

In fact, Canfield said Tuesday that she had just met with her adviser in her
hospital room before undergoing a round of chemotherapy in the afternoon.

"I will have to apply for Social Security disability and then something
called Medicaid," she said.

Asked whether she had understood what Medicaid was, she said: "I heard of it
but I didn't really realize what it was."

The idea that Canfield would have to give up her home originated first in
the letter she wrote to the president, in which she explained that she
feared she would have to sell it in order to pay her medical bills.