2048 - Letter

This was a letter to the editor about health care in yesterdays St. Louis Post Dispatch.


Mitt Romney told the Columbus Dispatch’s editorial board on Oct. 11, “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartments because they don’t have insurance.”

I wish he could have met my brother Dale Robert Loepker, but he can’t because Dale died in his trailer/apartment because he didn’t have insurance.

"We don't have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, 'Tough luck, you're going to die when you have your heart attack,' " he added in the interview. "No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital," Romney said.

Dale went to the hospital, he was treated just enough to be stabilized but he was not given the care he needed because he didn’t have insurance. Even though he was complaining of severe stomach pain, he was sent home. Dale died four days later of diverticulitis. Two weeks later, the hospital contacted my mom asking for payment.

Dale worked and had an annual salary of $15,000. He made too much money to be able to receive Medicaid but not enough to be able to afford insurance.

Dale was considered “middle class.” The middle class that Romney is so out of touch with.    




This wasn't terminal cancer. This was a very curable disease.