President Barack Obama at Arcadia University by FIREFIGHTERSDAUGHTER
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: After the event, Trisha Urban, 33, of Hamburg, hurried out to her car, in a race to get there before her daughter, Cora, 13 months, began to cry. “My husband died on the day she was born,” said Urban, who had been invited to attend by Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.). She and her husband, Andrew Urban, had insurance, she said, but when he was diagnosed with a heart condition and started needing regular medical care, their coverage was dropped. They struggled to keep paying the bills, but Andrew Urban decided to skip his last doctor’s appointment because they couldn’t pay for it. Less than a month later, on Feb. 5, 2009, Trisha Urban found her husband unconscious in their home as she went into labor. She was unable to revive him. “If he could have gone to the doctor,” she said, “it would have made a world of difference.” MORE
DNC: “It’s not surprising that the same insurance company executives who have recently jacked up already unaffordable premiums by as much as 60 percent on America’s families and small businesses while also denying care to those who need it most, are holed up in the posh Ritz-Carlton today plotting their strategy to kill reform. They know that reform will make care more affordable and will ensure reliable coverage, but they also know that it could put a small dent in their record profits. And they are desperate to protect their profits. That’s why they and their Republican allies are going to say and do anything to mislead and scare the American public about reform including telling the most scurrilous lies and using the most despicable fear tactics. Today’s news that Anthem is going to hike rates in Virginia proves that the insurance industry feels they can continue to gouge the American people with impunity and highlights the need for reform now. Because, while they are sipping tea at the Ritz, American families are feeling the pain of insurance company rate hikes and GOP obstruction.”