Testimony on coverage gap: ‘Now I’m watching my kids as adults go through the same thing’

Marilena Delgado told lawmakers she’s a 51-year-old from Orofino, a mother of four adult children. “I’ve been uninsured for the better part of the last 25 years,” she said. “The only way I have access to health care is to visit the ER. I’ve been here many times over the past 15 years trying to secure health insurance for my children when they were younger. At that time that was enough for me, top priority was get my children covered with affordable health care. I am a hard worker, I work very hard. Now fast forward to 20 years later, I’m still uninsured, and my kids are no longer kids, now they’re uninsured, hard-working adults.”

She said, “I know that some of my health care issues probably could have been prevented with preventive maintenance, if I’d been able to take care of myself a little better. … It really bothers me because now I’m watching my kids as adults go through the same thing that I went through, and their health is declining. And just in the past year, I’ve lost two friends of mine due to lack of health care.”

Delgado said when “the Obamacare thing was offered, I almost felt like I’d hit the lottery, I was finally going to be able to have access to some affordable health care for myself and my family. That kind of didn’t turn out very well.” She said, “I’m just kinda here today asking if maybe we could close the health care gap and expand Medicaid for people like me, and the other 78,000 people out there that can’t afford health care.”

She apologized for being nervous, saying she’d planned to try to use big words and lots of statistics, but, “It’s really just from my heart.”

Melody Hayden , her voice breaking, told the lawmakers, “I just want you to reach into your hearts and know that this affects everyone and we are all very important. And because we don’t make enough money doesn’t mean that we should die.”