Uninsured call on Hastert for reform

By Angela Fornelli

BATAVIA — About a dozen people called upon House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday to work toward strengthening the health-care system to provide affordable health care to all.

The uninsured residents and health-care advocates stood outside Hastert's Batavia office and demanded the speaker "use the power of his office to bring real reform to health care that is inefficient, unaffordable and unfair," said William McNary, co-director of Citizen Action Illinois and president of U.S. Action.

The event, hosted by Illinois for Health Care, was part of the National Health Care Day of Action, in which people in 50 cities across 30 states participated. It comes at the forefront of mid-term elections and updated Census Bureau statistics on the uninsured, to be released next week.

Current estimates show nearly 46 million Americans lack insurance, including 33,000 in Kane County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Juanita Wells of Aurora is one of them. Wells, a member of the East Aurora School Board, said she lost her medical coverage after the company she worked for downsized and she lost her job. Her current job is at a small not-for-profit that does not offer health coverage to its employees, yet her salary is too high to qualify for state aid. And, at age 56, she is too young to qualify for Medicare.

"The United States must provide medical coverage for those that fall between the cracks," Wells said at the press conference Tuesday. "We all know it's much more costly to treat full-blown diseases."

Wells, who has survived cancer and also takes medications for high blood pressure and diabetes, said she sometimes goes without her blood pressure medication, which costs $160 a month, because she can't afford it.

"There are times I need to go to the doctor and I don't go because I don't have the money to pay for a doctor's visit," she said.

Brad Hahn, spokesman for Hastert, said the congressman has been a leading voice for expanding access to quality health care.

"This kind of stunt can be expected around campaign time, but they really should check their facts before they start printing T-shirts," Hahn said.

Hastert has been instrumental in forming the prescription drug benefit now available through Medicare and also led the effort to create tax-free health savings accounts, Hahn said. The speaker also has been a leading voice for malpractice reform and supports health plans that allow small businesses to pool together to purchase low-cost insurance, he said.

As part of the event, the organization placed chalk outlines of people on the sidewalk to dramatize that they will no longer "chalk up" the health-care crisis to "Congress' misplaced priorities."

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