David Lehman Quotes

Too many Americans who are uninsured or under-insured do not receive regular checkups because they can't afford coverage or their insurance doesn't cover enough of the costs. The lack of preventive care results in countless emergency room visits and health care disasters for families.

No one should have to choose between medicine and other necessities. No one should have to use the emergency room every time a child gets sick. And no one should have to live in constant fear that a medical problem will become a financial crisis.

We can all agree that no American should lose their life savings or their home because of illness or injury and that the rising cost of health care severely burdens individuals, families and businesses.

The average man with a need for an operation cannot afford a first class hospital …My medical pills run $400 to $500 a month and hell, I feel pretty good … Costs must be tempered..

Before the Affordable Care Act, one in five bankruptcies in this state was health care related.

It wasn't until I was injured at the gym - resulting in an emergency room visit and bill of $4,000 - that I realized the cost of forgoing health insurance. I was fine, but it took me more than a year to pay off that bill. That hurt worse than the injury itself.

For many Americans, including many who are employed, going to the doctor when they fall ill or become injured may not be an option because of the absence of health insurance.

My doctor gave me six months to live, but when I couldn't pay the bill he gave me six months more.

Look, if you have somebody who doesn't have health insurance, who doesn't have a doctor or dentist, and in order to deal with their cold or flu or dental problem, they go to an emergency room - in general, that visit will cost ten times more than walking into a community health center.

In this most powerful nation in the world, lack of access to health care should not force local and state governments, companies and workers into bankruptcy, while causing unnecessary illness and hospitalization.

We ought to follow through on an idea that was first proposed by President Clinton to allow people over the age of 55 who are not eligible for Medicare into the Medicare system, at cost, and below cost for those who can't afford it. That takes care of a significant number of the people who don't have health insurance.

Uninsured people don't just slink off into a corner and die. They seek treatment, but usually when it is an emergency, and this will be the most expensive kind of care available.

Five thousand people every day lose their home because of a medical bankruptcy. Most of them had insurance.

I know that some things are beyond our control, some illnesses are beyond our control, we get sick, we don't know why. But let's pledge to do whatever we can to avoid those high medical bills.

Most illegals are without health insurance, and when these workers need emergency healthcare, the American taxpayer gets stuck with the bill.

Even families with health insurance are quite vulnerable to a severe economic reversal if someone gets sick.

Millions of Americans who are not poor are health care poor.

When someone has to go to the hospital because they don't have insurance - and by the way, I think the insurance companies should be out of the mix altogether - but when someone needs health care, and they don't have the ability to pay for it, in our communities, we end up paying for it one way or the other.

The No. 1 cause of bankruptcies is medical bills.

If you're sick, you should be able to see a doctor. And if you're seen, you should be able to afford the bill and your medicine without going broke. There is absolutely nothing radical about this.

Political grandstanding might make for great soundbites for the evening news, but it will do nothing to help the people that go to work every day knowing that they're one health emergency away from bankruptcy. It will do nothing to help the hospitals struggling to keep their doors open under the crushing cost of uncompensated care.

Uninsured care happens in this country, and here's the problem. It's not properly accounted for. The people who pay for uninsured care at the moment are the hospitals and the doctors and all of the medical providers.

Not a single Mainer should be rationing their medication or avoiding a trip to the doctor because they aren't sure what it will end up costing.

I got sick, hospitalized, had no insurance. And the money I had saved for our honeymoon went to pay medical bills. So I had been in the position of not having insurance when I needed health care.

American families, families back home in Minnesota, know only too well that out-of-pocket expenses for health care have been rising at an astonishing rate.