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Reneé LaSalle's picture

Senator Corker Says Current Health Care Bill a Mistake, But Local Woman Says Reform a Must

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Congress may be on Thanksgiving vacation... But the Health Care debate rages on.

Wednesday Senator Bob Corker told Rotarians in Chattanooga the President tackled the wrong health issues first.

But while the politicians debate health care, the people back home have to live with it...And for some, it's a struggle.

One local woman says something has to happen...

Jami Keener says, "Take their health care away. Let them see what it's like."

For Keener the health care reform debate is that simple...

The 27 year old mother of two is fighting a kidney disease that could leave her in need of a transplant.

Eighteen months ago she joined the TennCare system when she lost her job.

In August she learned she was no longer covered, "We have nuclear weapons for crying out loud, and we can't take care of our people?"

Keener gets help from Project Access and her doctor's help with her medication.

But without that assistance her 8 pills a day would cost $350 a month.

Keener says she doesn't have the answers for Health Care Reform, but something has to be done.

Now the health care reform bill goes to the Senate...

It's a 2000 page document that Senator Bob Corker says just won't work, "Driving up private health insurance rates, using 6 years worth of costs and 10 years worth of revenues. That just doesn't pass the common sense test."

The Tennessee republican says the Trillion dollar health care reform bill will cause private health insurance rates to skyrocket as much as 60%.

He says reform must happen, but the current bill isn't the way to go, "I do hope that we'll be able to set down together and stop this bad thing from happening..."

Keener says, "Yeah, somebody's gonna have to pay for it. It may be my kids that pay for it. It may end up being their grandkids that pay for it. You know, but we're paying for stuff that happened back in the day."

For Jami Keener the only wrong choice is doing nothing...

Her husband lost his job two weeks ago...but the bills keep coming, "If it's not gonna be bi-partisan it needs to be...somebody needs to do something."

Discussion on the bill won't begin until after Thanksgiving.

Senator Corker hopes for 6 to 8 weeks of debate.


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