John Stossel: Making rhetorical hay on dead bodies
Open Letter to ABC’s John Stossel … from Julie Pierce, American SiCKO
Dear John,
My name is Julie Pierce. My husband was Tracy Pierce. I am featured in Michael Moore’s documentary ‘SiCKO.’ In the movie, I share my deceased husband’s story – his unsuccessful battle with our insurance company to receive what could have been life-saving treatments for kidney cancer. </em>I just read your Wall Street Journal article written on Sept. 13, 2007, titled “Sick Sob Stories.” You begin by talking about Tracy’s role in ‘SiCKO,’ and claim the bone marrow transplant denied by our insurer would not have saved him. You also accuse me of “sneering” over our situation.
My family is not a “Sick Sob Story.” We are a normal, American family that has had a significant member die from a horrible cancer that ravaged his body due to repeated denials from a health insurance company. We will never know for sure what would have worked because Tracy was never given a fighting chance. Over 18,000 Americans die each year because they don’t have health insurance. I suppose theirs are “sob stories,” too.
I don’t want a hit-piece. I want answers. Why does our wonderful profit-driven system of medicine kill 18,000 Americans each year? Why do we pay far more for our health system than any other country, but have some of the lowest life expectancies and highest infant mortality rates in the Western world?
</em>Why indeed? And why does this family have to be subjected to some dbag making political points off their loss by sneering at them? Sickening.
