KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Harsh reality of healthcare crisis

Harsh reality of healthcare crisis

By Ben Wolf – bio|email

HAUGHTON, LA (KSLA) – KSLA News 12 found one of the many Ark-La-Tex families who have their own personal struggle with the healthcare crisis.
Judith Sammons is a single mother who says she did everything right -- full-time job, pays her taxes, and had private health insurance for her family.
Now her world is turned upside down.
Eleven month old Lexi is one of the cutest kids you'll ever meet.
But behind her soft wandering eyes are more health problems than you could ever imagine.
"The bills have piled up so high, you don't even want to look at them.  They just sit there because I mean why open them when you know you can't pay them," said Sammons.
Born three months premature at one pound 11 ounces, baby Lexi spent 105 days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Sutton's Children's Hospital.
Doctors gave her a 10 percent chance to live.
Lexi defied all odds, but after 5 more hospitalizations, doctors determined she suffers from nine different diseases and complications including congenital heart disease, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy.
Judith's private health insurance company dropped the family after they quickly reached their four million dollar cap.
"Medicaid doesn't want to pay for it.  They don't want to pay for the equipment, the supplies, we get portable oxygen so we can go to doctors' appointments and what not and every time we apply for these things, we get a big rejection letter," said Judith.
More than 1,000 miles away, lawmakers in Washington are battling over the health care crisis.
Democrats say their healthcare reform bill wouldn't allow insurance companies to drop coverage for people like Judith and Lexi.
"I feel like health insurance is needed by everybody hate to see it happen to a family like that that's in need," said Minden resident Sean Simmons.
Others say this particular bill has too many problems.
"Instead of fixing tort reform, things that will actually bring stuff down, they're adding more bureaucracy.  We want less," said Staci Trexler of Arkansas.
Meanwhile, Judith Sammons is tired of the politics.
If lawmakers lived a day her shoes it would be interesting to see how things would change.
Sammons has contacted Governor Jindal, Congressman Fleming, and Senator Vitter.
So far, Dr. Fleming's team and Governor Jindal's staff both said they will do whatever they can to help her child.