'Health insurance crisis' all too real

06:20 PM CST on Wednesday, March 16, 2005

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA-TV

Recent figures show more than 44 million Americans do not have health insurance.

Making insurance and health care affordable is a major goal of the Bush administration - and one family's ordeal is proof that reform is needed.

The Reils are a middle-class family. For them and millions of Americans like then, a $20 co-pay or $100 lab fee seems a small price to pay for the security of health insurance - until something major happens.

With barely enough strength to move his right arm, Raymond Reil is not the man he used to be. A year ago, 57 and healthy, he was unexpectedly diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer.

His wife Carolyn thought his health insurance would at least relieve her of financial worry - but she was mistaken.

"It's a problem, because they only pay 80-20," Carolyn said. "Each one of those bills for chemo was 44-thousand dollars."

In an effort to keep up with the bills, the Reils are almost broke. Carolyn has tried signing up for food stamps, welfare - anything to help - but government agencies turned her down because having health insurance means they have too much money.

"It's hard to sleep at night; you don't know what to do," she said. "I don't want to lose my house and I don't want to lose my car."

Reil has been told she'll have to lose just about everything to qualify for aid. She and her family now know exactly what "health insurance crisis" means.

"If I had to give the shirt off my back, I would give it to them," said daughter Candace Anderson.

After months of silence, Raymond Reil started talking again last week. He mumbles sometimes about how much easier his death would be for his family; the thought of that makes them sick.