Obama’s Health Care Plan Gets a Personal Story

Editor — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:56:29 +0000

From today’s New York Daily News, the president gets a up-close-and- personal story about the dysfunction of the Social Secuirty claim process for terminally ill people: “President Obama played the comforter-in-chief Wednesday when a woman with kidney cancer, no insurance and little hope went looking for help at his health care summit.

“Obama gave an emotional Debby Smith a hug and a promise, but she also may have given him a hand by making herself a living argument for his health reform.

“I’ll try not to cry,” Smith, 53, told Obama at a town hall-style forum in Northern Virginia, explaining how 11 years ago she skipped a more certain treatment for a kidney tumor so she could help her dying father.

“She was left disabled, she said, and now has no job, no insurance and no Social Security.

“I get food stamps, but that’s it,” said Smith, of Appalachia, Va. “And I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to make it nine years till I’m qualified to get my regular Social Security, now that I have a new tumor and have no way to treat it.”

Disability News Blog » Debby Smith

Obama’s Health Care Plan Gets a Personal Story