For millions of Americans like me, our health care system is a glaring example of how, for too long, politicians in Washington, D.C. have put the interests of drug and insurance companies before the interests of New Hampshire's working families.
I used to earn a great salary with excellent benefits. But when I got cancer, I was too sick to work and I lost my job. To keep my insurance through COBRA, I had to pay $1,013 a month. Because we couldn't afford that, my wife had to take a second job--one that had a health insurance plan that would cover me.
We were lucky to find the coverage, considering most insurance companies would turn us away because my cancer would qualify as a pre-existing condition. Obviously, my wife would rather spend that time at home with our family than working a second job, but paying for my treatments would have bankrupted us like it has so many others.
Today, I met Jeanne Shaheen at Lindy's Diner in Keene. She was in town for part of her Middle Class Matters tour. We talked for more than 10 minutes, as if there was no one else in the crowded diner, about what it's going to take to achieve affordable health care for every single American. She listened to what I had to say and asked the kind of questions that showed she was deeply concerned about what we're going through. Jeanne Shaheen is the leader we need in Washington to accomplish this goal and put New Hampshire's families, not special interests, first.
I'm voting for Jeanne in November because I know she'll fight harder than anyone to make affordable health care a reality...so I can focus on fighting cancer.
