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Aug 20, 2009 9:07 pm US/Central
Falling Through The Cracks Of Health Care Debate
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Jacqui Mekias stood in front of 1200 people in Irving Wednesday during a town hall meeting and made a passionate plea. "I am an American citizen. I deserve the same amount of insurance that anybody else gets. I want my husband to stay alive."
Mekias' husband had a liver transplant 13 years ago and must take daily medication to keep his body from rejecting the new liver. The Dallas mother of two now says her husband is likely to die without health care reform. "We got sick. Why is that something we should be penalized for?"
Mekias' husband lost his job as an engineer last December. COBRA health insurance for the family costs $1,500 a month and the unemployment checks are not enough to cover the bills. "I just want to have an equal playing field."
Mekias took her plight to Representative Pete Sessions. The congressman said he understood her grave concerns, but told her it was President Obama who needed to hear the message. "This president needs to hear from you and others, so that he goes back and does something about the problem and not run over everybody by ruining Medicare."
Sessions believes the president's health care plan needs to focus on the 30 million Americans in the same boat as Mekias. As it's being proposed, the congressman says covering the remaining 260 million who already have insurance, is far too expensive and wasteful.
"I was looking for him to say, I don't like the bill that's on the table and this is what I think should be done instead. And this is what me and so and so are writing to counteract this bill" says Mekias
Sessions argues that the town hall meetings need to focus on the plan currently on the table. The congressman says the president is leading the charge and therefore he needs to hear from the American public.
"Listen to people. Go do something about the problem. Don't try and take over a government health care plan that we know doesn't work."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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