Florida woman could be health care example at Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight
by George Bennett | January 27th, 2010
Michelle Obama
The guest list for First Lady Michelle Obama’s box at tonight’s State of the Union address includes a Central Florida woman whose family, according to the White House, was denied coverage in 2008 because of preexisting conditions and can’t afford to buy insurance now.
Cindy Parker-Martinez of Belle Isle, near Orlando, is one of 26 people who will be seated near Michelle Obama for tonight’s speech, according to the White House.
Read the White House’s bio of Parker-Martinez after the jump….
From the White House description of guests in First Lady Michelle Obama’s box for tonight’s State of the Union address:
Cindy Parker-Martinez (Belle Isle, FL)
Cindy is a mother of two young children, who shared her story of the problems her family faces with the current health care system at a Health Care Community Discussion held at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, one of thousands of discussions held nationwide in December 2008. In April 2008, Cindy, her husband, and her son were all denied insurance coverage on the individual insurance market because of pre-existing conditions. Her 11-month old daughter was also denied coverage due to an insurance company age requirement of 12 months. Both Cindy and her husband are currently uninsured because they cannot afford the insurance offered at her husband’s employer. Although they previously paid their premium, they could not afford to keep up the monthly payments after receiving thousands of dollars in medical bills from her husband’s unexpected 6-day hospital stay for pneumonia. Their family’s income is too high for them to qualify for Medicaid. Cindy and her husband currently have no insurance and have thousands of dollars in medical debt.
Tags: Michelle Obama, State of the Union
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January 27th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
How will sitting with the First Lady for a couple of hours solve the real-world problems faced by Cindy Parker-Martinez and her family? Upon review of the Health Care proposals submitted by the White House, I have not seen tangible evidence that true reform is on the horizon. While I applaud the removal of insurance barriers created by pre-existing conditions, we also need Portability, Tort Reform, and protocols for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. When will we have true reform that positively impacts the Parker-Martinez family, Floridians, and Americans?
January 27th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
First of all I am a Health Insurance Broker with many different Insurance carriers and on the Individual Market there are a lot of carriers that will cove the 11 month old so that is not an issue.
January 27th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
How much blood and money will it cost them Alan?
People can’t afford your Health Care.
For decent coverage…a female 51 needs 900.00 a month!!!!
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February 14th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
As an honored guest of the First Lady Michelle Obama at the State of the Union Address, I had the opportunity to represent over 46 million uninsured Americans according to the media and 2008 census. Obvious, this number has significantly increased with the spike in unemployed Americans. I was chosen from statements that I made at a 2008 health care forum held at UCF which is 1 of over 3200 health care forums conducted nationwide.
As I prepared for my DC trip, I learned that the Hair Dresser, the Nail Specialists, the Realtor, the Taxi Cab Driver and the motivated Entrepreneur that I came in contact with have no insurance. These hard working Americans can not obtain health care and make too much money for state run programs. As premiums increase with insured Americans, everyone who has it is nervous to keep it. Think about that! With my first hand experiences, I look forward to working with State and Federal Governments and The White House to correct our health care infrastructures and implementing fair regulation in the coming weeks.