Tears and fears flood Congress on health care

WASHINGTON

Tom Skare wants lawmakers negotiating a health care overhaul to know he's running out of options.

The 57-year-old Cloquet resident recently sent a letter to Rep. Jim Oberstar and his two senators explaining that his family is buried beneath more than $20,000 in unpaid medical bills because two insurance companies can't agree on who should pay for the treatment of his son, Ethan.

The Skares are among hundreds of Minnesotans deluging their representatives in Washington daily with nightmarish health care sagas, hoping somehow to influence the debate as the House unveils a massive bill to revamp the system that includes a public option and would levy taxes on the wealthy to pay for it.

Some constituents call in tears, with tales of impending bankruptcy. Others call out of fear, frightened that big changes will upend their business. "I'm worried that the lawmakers aren't people like me," said Jim Johnson, 46, who owns several recruiting and staffing franchises just outside the Twin Cities. Johnson worries that expenses from plans now being considered could cripple his business.

Representatives for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the calls and letters on health care dwarf those on other issues and have taken a distinctly personal tone. In Sen. Al Franken's office alone, the phone rings about 100 times a day with personal stories.

At Rep. Erik Paulsen's office, health care calls "are outnumbering anything else we've faced," said Andrew Foxwell, a spokesman for Paulsen, who represents western Hennepin County.

"But the number of personal calls as well are higher than anything else we've ever faced," Foxwell said, "So obviously it's a super-personal issue."

Ethan Skare, 20, suffers major complications from a liver transplant he had as a baby and neither of his two insurance plans want to foot the $7,000-a-month bill for shots that prevent internal bleeding and keep him out of the hospital.

"We want to make [Washington] aware," said Tom Skare, who would like to see a public option and greater allowances for pre-existing conditions. "I mean, they're talking about health care reform and they're talking about how the insurance companies can adequately manage the process. And of course they aren't doing that for us."

In August, St. Paul native Katy Cummins-Bakko, a public school social worker, contacted Franken's office about her 6-year-old son Owen, who has been unable to digest most food for about a year without becoming violently ill. The mysterious yet crippling condition has stumped doctors and stuck the family with an $11,000 bill from their high-deductible insurance plan. Without a firm diagnosis, Medicaid officials say Owen's condition doesn't qualify as a disability, though he spends weeks at a time in hospitals and must be fed through a special tube.

Owen was recently treated at a hospital in Colorado, where his father, a second-grade teacher in St. Paul, also paid about $1,000 for a temporary apartment to be close to their son.

"I canceled our home phone because we had collection agencies calling 15 times a day," said Cummins-Bakko, 35. She contacted lawmakers after receiving an e-mail from Moveon.org, a liberal activism group.

"We were fine financially before this," Cummins-Bakko said. "But now it almost seems like the only option is to file for bankruptcy."

Long Lakes resident Carrie Smeby, a 56-year-old office assistant at an entertainment venue outside Minneapolis, e-mailed Paulsen and her two senators after opening a paycheck that showed a 20 percent jump in her health care premiums.

"I just told them my story," Smeby said. "It's like I can no longer afford to pay some of my bills and it's health care reform time and it can't come soon enough." She noted that insurance costs now consume about two-thirds of her paycheck.

"Just help," she said. "Do something, anything."

Smeby, who has diabetes, pays $1,334 a month in premiums to cover both herself and her husband -- about $16,000 a year without counting other out-of-pocket costs. She said she hopes that health care reform forces medical insurance companies to rein in costs.

For some Minnesotans, the inspiration to contact Washington came unexpectedly.

John Baker was sitting in a restaurant in Shakopee when he overheard two British men at a nearby table chuckling that lawmakers in Washington hold up the British health system as a good example of national health care. The men cited their country's filthy hospitals and long wait times.

"They were actually laughing about it," Baker said. "And I was just listening because I had no right, really, to overhear what they were saying, but that prompted my call and my letter to the congressman just to say, 'Whoa, let's hold back here until we know what the outcomes are going to be from these really draconian moves.'"

Baker, a leadership consultant and author from Eden Prairie, said he opposes a government-run health care option.

"You know, health care is the first thing that has caused me to get off my duff and contact both my congressman and my senators," Baker said.

Oberstar aides working in Northeastern Minnesota said they have fielded calls from constituents facing a litany of problems. Some have lost their jobs and can't afford insurance. One woman said a health insurance company dropped her because her pregnancy counted as a pre-existing condition.

"I just wanted to be heard ... so that health care reform would look at people like us and say, 'That's who we're helping,'" said Cummins-Bakko, who has been in regular contact with Franken's office. "It's not about people not working hard enough, because we're doing everything we can."

Eric Roper • 202-408-2723