@ronn - you are correct - I think the bill is suppossed to be on his desk today, if what I heard is correct

I have seen my sister, who works for a very large retailer, have to go back to work still suffering the ravages from lung cancer in order to be able to keep her health insurance as they were no longer going to continue to cover her unless she came back to work. Children should not have to be without preventative medical care due to the fact that there parents can't afford the services or even can't afford to take off work to take the child to the Doctor. Several issues that I have discussed need to be taken care of. Health insurance should not be tied to your job. You should be able to take it with you when you leave for any reason at affordable premiums. The Federal Government needs to joing over 50% of the Fortune Five Hundred companies and add domestic partner benefits. People should not have to choose between insurance coverage, a job or staying at home and being treated so they can get better.

I am currently a federal government employee who luckliy has healthcare, however I have seen the consequences of high premium costs and someone having to go back to work in order to keep their health insurance even though they were suffering through cancer. My partner and I used to own a business. Unfortunately, he had no other job and because of that had to pay for an individual insurance policy. At the time he started with the insurance company he was paying 500 a month for his premiums. Within 2 years, his premium shot up to almost 900 a month. In addition, as his premium went up, his benefits continued to decline, so we were not only paying more for the premium but also more for his office visits, his prescriptions and his one hospital stay. Because I work for the Federal Government, which does not recognize domestic partners for insurance benefits, I could not even put him on my insurance, even though we had been together for over 25 years and had been married in Canada.