I am a 58 year old woman. Two weeks ago I was a perfectly healthy person, filled with tons of energy. For the past 30 years I have included at least an hour of exercise every day in my health regime, I am meticulous about staying on top of all my health screenings as recommended, I don't drink, I don't smoke, live in an extremely healthy small mountain community, never - and I mean never! - eat junk food, sodas, or sugary drinks, have a diet rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. All of my family and friends have always viewed me as the picture of health. That was until a few days ago when I received a shocking diagnosis from my doctor that I have malignant ovarian cancer.

Please know this is not meant to solicit sympathy but rather I have a different purpose for outlining this sudden horror in my life. And that purpose is to bring light to our absolutely disastrous health care system as seen from my eyes. According to the standards of so many of our elected officials I should have nothing to complain about because I am employed full time and have health insurance through my employer. I should be relieved, right? Well nothing could be further from the truth.

The reality is as I sit here writing this letter I am terrified, not just for my life, but how this illness could possibly devastate my family financially. The reality is I need to plan for this and after getting off the phone with my insurance company I am still left wondering how deep in my pocket this is going to hit me. What does the future hold for me since I obviously can't work right now? Will I have to remortgage my house, sell my house, file for bankruptcy? I find it obscene that as sick and exhausted as I am I have to sit here at this desk trying to piece together as many parts of the insurance puzzle as I can.

Since I live in a rural northern Arizona community I have little choice as to the specialist I can be referred to without significant additional cost to me. That decision will be made for me by an insurance employee who will consult an actuarial table with no knowledge of me as a person who is someone's spouse, daughter, mother, sister, aunt, friend. I will be kicked into a higher out-of-pocket cost because the insurance company has determined it is not in line with their profit making model to pay for doctors that could save my life but would cost more than they deem appropriate. In my eyes this is the ultimate in rationing. Every time my doctor orders a test he feels is critical it is someone behind the desk at the insurance company who determines whether that test should be paid for and if so, how much.

Now please allow me to enlighten you as to what my current medical insurance premiums are costing. As a full time worker and as part of my benefit package I have medical coverage for myself at a cost of $454.08/month and my one dependent adds an additional $702.16/month to that premium. That brings the total premium for medical without dental or vision to $1,156.24/month. The total yearly premium is a grand total of $13,874.88. As an employee I haven't seen any significant increase in pay for years yet those medical premiums keep increasing and the coverage I am allowed keeps decreasing.

How did we get to this pathetic state as a country. Our current system is not only broken but it is ethically and morally a sham. In my opinion, and I think I speak with more weight than a well-to-do person with no personal experience in these matters, we need drastic change now. There is a chance I may not survive to see change happen but for all the people in this country who are in my situation and I believe a huge percentage are even worse off, I beg you to please fight for real health reform. The insurance companies need to be reigned in. Their profits are obscene at the expense of those of us paying their outrageous premiums.

One last notation if I may. Given how the insurance companies have become so incredibly powerful it has become obvious they must have true competition in the form of a public health option. They have proven time and again that they will not do what is morally right as they are corporations motivated only by profit. And that profit is made on the backs of the customers who are sick and suffering and who will lose their homes and their lives. We as a country must do better than this. I beg you to please fight for a STRONG PUBLIC OPTION.