LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
HUFFINGTON
02.03.13
‘Good
People
Live Here’
IN THIS WEEK’S issue,
Peter S. Goodman and
Jeffrey Young look at
the 49 million Americans who lack health insurance, “a
crowded group that no one chooses to join.” And as the time nears
when Obamacare will finally go
into effect, Goodman and Young
tell the stories of several Americans who would benefit from it
— and who are struggling under
the current system. These stories,
while unique, all share one quality: a vicious cycle of unmet medical needs, worry and financial
strain. As one health care expert
puts it, “We have a health care
system that has the best medical
ART STREIBER
I
science in the world that delivers
third-world health care to the vast
majority of our population.”
There’s Laura Johnson, who
was deemed too well-off by the
state of Louisiana to receive Medicaid, but who is also unable
to afford $200 a month for the
prescription drugs to treat her
high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. So she simply
doesn’t take her pills on a regular basis, opting instead for what
Goodman and Young call “a selfwritten prescription: home remedies, prayer and denial.”
And Dianne Laird, who lost
her job — and her health insur-
Join the
conversation
on Twitter
and Facebook