Health care is on the way from Missouri (a bus)

No person in the grip of "Help Is Here Express" bus can doubt the need for reform of health care. We've seen families around the nation, including in Missouri, where more than 750,000 inhabitants n ' have no health insurance of any kind.

Workers on the bus man computers programmed to match the patients as prescription assistance programs, including nearly 200 programs offered by pharmaceutical companies. As the economy has deteriorated, we see more people who are more desperate than ever.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost 4.4 million jobs. The losses are worse than average in Missouri, where 8.6% of workers, more than 261,000 people are seeking work but can not find it. The impact of unemployment on health is incalculable, but estimated that for every 1% increase in the unemployment rate, a million more Americans will lose their health insurance.

But we do not need statistics to this chronic problem. We see it in the faces of people who, these days are already aligned at the bus pulls in cities and towns across America. Most of those working on the bus were haunted by one case or another.

Jess, for example, continues to wonder what happened on 27-year mother of two children, unable to work because of a leg is five inches shorter than the other. His family had other health problems and her husband $ 1000-a month's work does not have insurance. The mother simply could not afford shoes that cost $ 500.

The woman left the bus pre-approved to receive free drugs, she and her family need. However, Jess asks: Is the woman is monthly fees that allow him to save enough to lift the shoe giving it a more normal life?

Karl often think of the heart transplant patient who came to the station to seek help. Insurance paid for the transplant surgery, but once he lost his job and his insurance, he is at risk of losing heart and losing his life.

This month marks the fourth anniversary as the bus has been on the road. Meanwhile, the program helped 5.7 million people get free or discounted medications, including over 143,000 inhabitants of Missouri. Although the application process requires that patients answer a few simple questions, we have seen since the recession that hit many people seem to need to confide what is happening to their families

Patients we are a barometer of the pressure of ordinary Americans are facing, and sometimes they are ahead of the news. Like the man who visited the bus months before the recession securities became commonplace.

"The bank has only ruled out on my house and I lost my job and my insurance and I only have four days of my diabetes medication left," he said.

Variations on lament what has become common. It is also the number of candidates who say they have never had to ask someone for help. Often you can tell who they are, by their reluctance to come on board. They arrive at the edge of the parking lot and hang back, watching, waiting for their work as we approach the nerve. Often, they make excuses, like middle-aged woman who recently said she had a university degree and was looking for a job difficult, but could not find anything.

She came looking for raised bus and said: "It saved my life." She would have the medicine in a few weeks, she says, and his doctor had given enough samples to last until 'then.

We had the honor to meet these people in the past four years, and we continue to help you. But ours is a palliative. When we hear the health care reform will have to wait, we believe the people we have met, the queue for the bus.(source)