Uninsured share stories of life without health insurance

Published: 2005-05-05

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- "Hi, I'm Mike. But you can call me Lucky." With those words, a visibly nervous Michael Moritz introduced himself to a crowd on Capitol Hill that included two U.S. senators, leading health care and business executives, and representatives of many of the nation's top media outlets. Moritz, a self-employed handyman, wasn't used to public speaking. But he wanted to share the story of what it was like for him last October to be uninsured and in need of open-heart surgery. "I was thinking about running for the door, because I knew I could not afford to pay for it," Moritz said of the moment when doctors at George Washington University Hospital in Washington told him he needed the surgery. But Moritz knows he is "one of the lucky ones," because doctors at the hospital contacted the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, which funded the surgery and his follow-up care. Moritz's story, told at the national launch of Cover the Uninsured Week, was one of hundreds shared at more than 1,700 events around the country to mark the week, observed May 1-8 this year.

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