Mar. 8--Mary Wallace travels to Washington, D.C., this week to put a human face on the health care reform discussions in Congress.
Wallace's doctors have told her she has two years to live if she doesn't get a lung transplant. She can't get on the transplant waiting list until she gets a pretransplant evaluation, but she can't get an evaluation because she doesn't have health insurance and can't afford to pay for the evaluation on her own.
She can't afford health insurance on her unemployment benefits and she can't find work.
Wallace, who lives near Gold Hill, suffers from what physicians call idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Idiopathic means nobody knows what causes it. Pulmonary means "of the lungs." Fibrosis is a technical word for scarring. What it all means is that when she breathes, oxygen comes in, but the insides of her lungs are too scarred to absorb as much oxygen as her body needs.
"When I bring air in," she said, "I'm only getting about 50 percent of what (normal) people my age get.
"There's no treatment besides a lung transplant," she said.
Since last fall, she has been breathing supplemental oxygen with the help of nasal tubes.
Wallace, 59, will tell members of Congress about her struggles on Wednesday during a program organized by Health Care for America Now, a national coalition advocating comprehensive health care reform. She's one of about two dozen people from 19 states that HCAN calls "health insurance survivors." HCAN is sending them to Washington to protest what it says is health insurance companies' resistance to health care reform.
The HCAN group will be in Washington at the same time a health insurance organization called America's Health Insurance Plans will hold a national conference.
Steve Neuberger, an organizer for HCAN in Medford, says it's no coincidence AHIP is meeting in Washington at the same time Congress nears final action on health care reform after months of debate.
"Some of us believe health insurance companies have done everything they can to stop health care reform," Neuberger said.
AHIP represents some 1,300 health insurance companies that insure more than 200 million people. It has repeatedly stated its support for health care reform, but has joined with individual companies to press lawmakers to control medical costs as the best solution for keeping health care and insurance affordable.
Wallace, who worked as a lawyer in Minnesota until she was laid off, said her experience reflects the problems many Americans face when they have a life-threatening illness. She was first diagnosed in 2005, and two years later her medical expenses consumed half to one-third of her monthly income. Her health insurance premiums rose steadily and eventually became unaffordable. She could no longer afford her mortgage and lost her home.
She came to Southern Oregon to live with her sister and help care for her mother, who also has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. She began attending HCAN meetings as a way to meet people and support efforts to improve the health care system.
"I hope to be a part of the final push for health care reform," she said. "It's at least a really good start to give people some protection."
Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 541-776-4492, or e-mail bkettler@mailtribune.com.
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