Ethan- Health care needs to be fixed.

Stephanie O'Brien, Portland

Dear Ethan,

I have been stewing all day and have finally sat down to share a few thoughts.

I am so angry at our health care system right now. So please, when you get elected to Congress I hope you will work on health care because as a registered nurse, it is a very, very important issue for me.

It is what drives me to work on getting good people like you elected, with hope that someday something will change, in the near future, not distant.

I have patients and family that suffer so much because of a lack of health care insurance and/or access to medical care because of the system we have in place currently.

Sure, there are programs designed to help people without private insurance from an employer -- MaineCare for example -- however, so much time is lost waiting for these programs to kick in that progress toward wellness is lost and suffering is inevitable -- let alone the red tape and confusion when people are trying to navigate these programs. There has got to be another way.

I do not know the ultimate answer to this dilemma, but I do know where the system fails us, and there must be ways that we can work to patch the system -- until we come up with a better solution. (That is why I am leaning towards Hillary for '08. She has some solutions that are implementable, not just ideals that are too good to be true).

There are so many examples I could give you to illustrate the heartbreaking stories I hear about everyday with my work. And more recently, close to home, with my family and friends.
One night this month I got a frantic call at 2:30am from a close friend who needed help because she was having horrible abdominal pain and bleeding. I was afraid that she had a serious problem. But she did not have health insurance - and refused to go to the Emergency Room. I finally convinced her she had to go anyway and thankfully the problem turned out non life-threatening. But it was so frustrating to know that an educated, employed, middle-income person had to gamble their well-being with financial hardship. No one should ever have to gamble like this!

I also have a close family member that suffers from clinical depression. Because he is self-employed he is without medical coverage, due to its cost. He needs medication to live a normal and functional daily life, but the pharmaceuticals are also very costly, therefore he cannot afford to take them regularly.

Because he can't afford his medication, it becomes a challenge for him just to get out of bed for weeks. He runs out of food and looses clients. It is so heart wrenching to see this young, healthy man so debilitated by mental illness. If he had access to the care and the medication he needs he would be a consistent, productive, tax-paying, caring citizen and employer. And he could have his life back.

Ethan- Health care needs to be fixed.

So, if you ever need an insider's perspective, or information from someone that has been in health care for the past eleven years, please call on me. I so desperately want to make changes and do not want to lose hope!

Thanks for listening! I hope to see you soon.
Stephanie O'Brien