Gary H. (Pittsburgh, PA)

I am currently employed full time by a social service agency and have full medical benefits provided for me by my employer.  I recently hurt my shoulder moving a piece of furniture and found out I need to have surgery to repair the damage.  However, my insurance has a $2000 deductible and my agency will only pay half of the deductible. I cannot afford to pay $1000 for the surgery so have been taking pain medication and trying to just live with it in the mean time until I can afford the procedure.

In addition, I have had my appointments cancelled several times by my doctor who was tied up on other cases.  I’ve been forced to take off work for these appointments but when I arrive at the office, I’m told I could either come in another day or wait around until the doctor returns and gets through his other patients.  I am employed with full medical benefits and I still cannot afford a necessary medical procedure to help alleviate my suffering let alone get the proper attention from my doctor.  For these reasons, I am one of the Americans working full time that knows we need to work together to fix our broken health care system.