ILona Edmonds, WA I am dealing with breast cancer. I had the mastectomy last September. I have full insurance coverage with Mailhandlers from my husband's job. The day I got home from the hospital I was on the phone asking Mailhandlers why they won't pick up part of my anesthesia bill. This full coverage with Mailhandlers meant that I owed about $10,000 of outstanding medical bills that the insurance company won't cover.

But this medical bill pales by comparison to the lack of quality in care I received due to the insurance company not allowing me to receive the care set forth by my doctor in the hospital. After the mastectomy, and according to my doctor's instructions, my dressing needed to be changed at least twice a day. It was changed once a day, after I called the front desk repeatedly. I later learned my insurance did not allow more frequent dressing changes.

Since my cancer totally ate my skin, I needed a plastic surgeon to take skin off my thigh and sew it onto my breast bones. The soonest the plastic surgeon could be scheduled was 4 days later and the hospital, according to my insurance coverage policy, sent me home after two days. Because I did not want to go home with a totally open and bleeding chest wound, the hospital staff made it very clear to me that I needed to get out.

I found out it was because of my insurance. I ended up in the emergency room to get my open wound dressing changed. When I went back to the hospital for the plastic surgery, my anesthesia was not covered by my insurance company.

I ask you, is this any way to treat a patient? Is this quality health care? Is this the best we can do? Third World countries give better care than we get as Americans. What we need is not Health Insurance, what we need is Health Care. We need the Obama Administration to advertise the pros of having Universal coverage, as in other countries like Switzerland, Germany, France, England, even Cuba, where people come first.

As for me, unless things improve dramatically, my next major medical treatment will be in a foreign country. The $10,000 I had to pay out of pocket goes a long way in another country where I won't be kicked out of the hospital and sent home bleeding.

What we need is ADVERTISEMENT. We need our federal government to advertise the truth on television with examples on how other countries are taking care of their own. This will take the fear and paralysis that people are experiencing, especially for small business owners.

We spend billions for war, for helping other nations, what about taking care of our own first? We need health CARE, not health insurance.